ALBANY — The fate of the potential sale of Rochester Gas and Electric's parent to a Spanish company was thrown into doubt Wednesday by the illness of one state regulator and the marriage plans of another.
A long-awaited vote by the state Public Service Commission on whether to allow the $4.5 billion sale of Energy East Corp. to Iberdrola SA of Spain was put off because only three of the five commissioners were present at a special meeting.
Commissioners Cheryl Buley and Robert E. Curry Jr., who make $109,800 a year each, were absent. The vote was rescheduled for next Wednesday.
Curry was ill, and the commission later announced that Buley plans to resign next week because she is getting married and moving out of state, leaving the four remaining commissioners to decide the case.
Buley's resignation would seem to make approval more difficult, since three votes are still needed for the sale to proceed. PSC members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.
The state has been weighing for months whether Iberdrola should be allowed to buy Energy East, which owns New York State Electric and Gas as well as RG&E. Federal regulators and regulators in three New England states have approved the deal, leaving the New York PSC as the last remaining hurdle.
Between them, RG&E and NYSEG serve 16 percent of the state's electric customers and 12 percent of natural gas users and have about 1.2 million electric and 562,000 natural gas customers.
"We are not comfortable acting without the other commissioners," PSC Chairman Garry Brown said in announcing the delayed vote.
Buley's resignation gives Gov. David Paterson a chance to expand his influence on the panel. With the exception of Brown, all of the other commission members were appointed by former Gov. George Pataki, a Republican. Brown was appointed last year by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat like Paterson.
Buley's term has almost four years to run.
"My departure is with mixed emotions, but the reason is very joyful," she said in a statement. "I have accepted a proposal of marriage, and I am relocating outside of the state."
Supporters of the deal have emphasized Iberdrola's position as one of the world's largest generators of wind energy and its plan to invest as much as $2 billion in new wind power facilities in the state. The state has committed to generating 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and hydropower by 2013.
Opponents have voiced concerns about Iberdrola having too much power to influence prices since it would own both generating and distribution facilities, something the PSC generally prohibits as anti-competitive.
One of the three commissioners at Wednesday's meeting, Maureen Harris, signaled she might vote no. She said she had concerns about potential market power for Iberdrola that "cannot be addressed," and thought the commission should stay consistent in its policy of discouraging utilities from owning both generation and transmission facilities.
"All we've been talking about is all the risks" of the deal, Harris said.
At an Aug. 20 meeting, Curry raised concerns about possible big payouts for Energy East executives — totaling at least $100 million — if the deal goes through.
There was no comment from an Energy East spokeswoman on the payout issue. An Iberdrola spokesman said the company didn't factor executive payouts into the purchase price.
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