[PRCo] Duquesne Light Sold

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Today's papers chronicled the announcement of the sale of Duquesne Light
Company to an Australian firm (I should have bought some stock last week for
a fast 20% gain...but I didn't!), and I note that the journalists are just
as accurate as ever...
In a P-G column "Duquesne Light Has Changed Hands Before" the writer says
"By 1924, Duquesne Light served 205,000 customers -- the most in any city
outside of New York and Chicago.  Two years later, its parent company, the
Philadelphia Company, was acquired by a larger holding company, Standard Gas
and Electric." [That acquisition occurred in 1924, not 1926.]  "Duquesne
Light separated itself from its parent companies in 1935, after Congress
passed a law mandating that holding companies could only own one utility
system.  As an independent company, Duquesne Light grew quickly as
Pittsburgh's heavy industry demanded increasing amounts of electricity.  In
1947, the company spent $300 million to double its generating ability." [Not
only did the writer get the year of independence wrong -- it was only after
1950 when Pittsburgh Railways was spun off that Philadelphia Company was
collapsed into Duquesne Light, Equitable Gas having been sold in 1949 -- she
thoroughly misunderstood the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935
and had no notion of how long it took before anything was separated under
same.]

Some things never change.

In case I don't respond to messages for the next two weeks, it's because
Janis and I are going on a vacation without phones and computers.  Back the
20th.

Ed