In his inaugural speech, Mr Chávez said he wanted to change the constitution to give the state control over natural-gas operations as well.The telecoms and electricity takeovers would be the first outright nationalisations by Mr Chávez.
Governor Pataki, who engineered the state takeover of Lilco's electricity service to enable a 20percentt cut in Long Island's electricity rates, had accused Dr. Catacosinos of "a secret act of greed" and charged that the payments violated state agreements.
The disputed refunds stem from the state's takeover of Lilco's electricity service on May 28.
Under the partial takeover, Marketspan will sell electricity from former Lilco generators to the authority for 15 years.
Mr Mappus chose an investment bank managed by a close friend to handle the state's takeover of a big electricity producer; the opposition accused him of favouritism.
Their case, involving about $15 million, comes at a time when Lilco and its successor company, Marketspan, are trying to fend off widespread criticism of Dr. William Catacosinos, the company chairman, and 25 other executives who received $67 million in compensation from the state takeover of Lilco's electricity business and the merger of Lilco with Brooklyn Union Gas Company.
The Spanish government is trying to block a takeover of Endesa, a big electricity company, by Germany's E.ON.
E.ON could use the resulting war-chest for something big, such as a takeover of Iberdrola, a Spanish electricity giant.The EU is pushing ahead with its plans and wants an agreement by the summer.
Such scenes were duplicated at brokerages around the region and the country as the Power Authority began marketing its first batch of tax-free bonds to pay for a $7 billion takeover of the Long Island Lighting Company's electricity service.
THE takeover of Endesa, Spain's biggest electricity firm, by E.ON, a German utility, is well on its way, declared Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at a press conference in Berlin last week.
