Atmos Energy Benefit From $50 Billion Pipeline Upgrades

U.S. plans to upgrade the nation’s aging pipeline networks, which may cost an estimated $50 billion, will provide profit growth opportunities at regulated utilities such as PG&E Corp.and Sempra Energy.
Safety concerns about the energy industry’s 2.5 million- mile (4 million-kilometer) network of fuel pipelines are growing among lawmakers, regulators and consumer groups after a pipeline blast last month in a San Francisco suburb killed eight and destroyed 37 homes. Oil leaks in suburban Chicago last month and in rural Michigan in July have also focused attention on a pipeline network that in some areas was laid a century ago.
Investment may benefit utilities such as PG&E, which can pass on the costs to customers through rate increases that include an allowance for profit, Paul Franzen, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis, said in an interview.
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