The Washington State Attorney General's Office has challenged proposed gas and electric rate increases by Puget Sound Energy, saying they are unjustified.

PSE's rate increases would generate an additional $237 million in revenue, according to a news release from the AGO today.

Simon ffitch, chief of the AGO's Public Counsel Section, said the utility's request is much larger than is needed to cover its costs.

"PSE's customers have been hit hard recently with frequent rate hikes - it's important that this increase be no more than absolutely necessary," ffitch said.

The state contends that a total of $11.3 million in increased revenue - $4.3 million in revenue from electric rates and $7 million in revenue from gas rates - would be more reasonable.

That's $226 million in revenue less than PSE is requesting, according to the news release.

Dorothy Bracken, PSE's spokeswoman, said the utility had not yet seen how the state came up with its numbers.

But, she said, PSE's proposed increases are to cover the company's higher costs.

"The amount of the revenue request that PSE put in the rate increase reflects actual cost of doing business," Bracken said.

The AGO's Public Counsel experts provided the state Utility and Transportation Commission with recommendations on reducing PSE's proposed rate increases.

They included:

- Reducing the company's shareholder profit margin.
- Reducing executive compensation.
- Rejecting the $500,000 cost of PSE's privately owned aircraft.
- Not requiring customers to pay for costs of executive parking at Sea-Tac or for PSE's corporate suite at Safeco field.
- Requiring the company to enhance low income programs.

Bracken said that PSE will be reviewing the state's testimony over the next month and preparing its response.

The UTC is expected to issue a decision on whether the proposed rate increase stands by November.

A 78-year-old Oregon-based lumber company will open its first Pierce County lumberyard Monday in Frederickson.

Parr Lumber's new yard at 5301 184th St. E. is the second lumberyard for Parr in the Puget Sound area. The company has another yard in Everett.

Parr has cabinet outlets in Fife, Seattle and Lynwood.

Parr was established in 1930 by accountant Dwight Parr Sr. who opened a lumberyard in Vancouver, Wa. The company remains family-owned run by the founder's grandsons, Michael Parr and Brad Farmer.

The company has 41 facilities in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah and Arizona.

The company will serve contractors from the Frederickson location. Parr has existing business relationships with several builders including Holt Military Housing.

The company is seeking new employees to serve as load builders, drivers and outside sales representatives.

The country's economic slowdown is playing out at the Port of Tacoma.

Container volume was down by 5.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Tong Zhu, the port's commercial strategy director.

Zhu presented the first quarter results to the port commission Thursday as part of a cargo forecast and budget update.

The dip is driven by an expected decline of international imports as some of the region's main importers grapple with fallout from the national housing downturn and credit crunch.

"A lot of the decrease is because West Coast ports have seen a huge reduction in imports - the demand is not there," Zhu said.

Port Executive Director Tim Farrell said the Tacoma and other West Coast ports anticipated the cargo dip and he doesn't expect imports to pick up until next year.

The Tacoma port's decline was higher than West Coast average - a 3.9 percent decrease in container volume from Vancouver, B.C. to Southern California.

Seattle posted a decline of 2.5 percent, while the Port of Portland actually witnessed a 12 percent increase in its container volume.

Zhu credited the Seattle port's more modest dip to the strength of its domestic trade, mostly with Alaska. In Portland, a major retailer relocated its purchasing department near the Oregon port and a new potato processing plant opened for business.

Though total West Coast imports have declined, the Puget Sound ports' market share remains steady at about 16 percent.

Zhu anticipates the port's total container volume for 2008 will be about the same as last year - at 1.9 million containers.

"I think we will come in flat and that will be good for the port," Zhu said.

The port remains on track with its 2008 budget.

Income from the first four months of operations was on par with last year at $6.5 million. Revenue, which the port earns from its terminal leases and from moving cargo, increased, but so did expenses.

The port aims for at least 15 percent return on revenue.

Staff projects income for the year to be at $20.7 million, which is a 20 percent return on revenue.

The port's spending on capital projects will be less than the 2008 projected. The port anticipates spending $236 million on construction this year, down from the original forecast of $265 million.

It's already spent $87 million this year, including almost $36 million in land acquisitions, said Jeff Smith, the port's finance director.

Much of that property is on the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula, which the port is developing into shipping container terminals.

Troubled United Airlines announced today that it will halt flying to Anchorage, Alaska beginning Sept. 21.

The Chicago-based carrier is trimming its schedule to eliminate unprofitable routes as it struggles with high fuel costs.

United connected its Denver hub with Anchorage.

The move is good news for SeaTac's Alaska Airlines, the dominant carrier to Anchorage. Alaska flies to Anchorage from Sea-Tac, Vancouver, San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago as well as from Hawaii.

Boeing added 30 orders to its backlog this week bringing the total of new airliner orders for the company to 408 for the year.

Those 30 new orders are for 737s to unidentified customers. Boeing also revealed that three 777 orders attributed to unidentified customers came from Air France.

Those additional orders bring the total of 737 orders this year to 291. The 787 remains in second place in the order race at Boeing with 79 orders for the year. In third is the 777 with 36 new orders.

The 747 has won two orders, while the 767 has none.

Both Boeing and its rival, Europe's Airbus, expect to sell about 700 new airliners this year, a respectable number, but significantly down from recent years when orders for both airframers topped 1,000.

To all those investors who want Weyerhaeuser to spin off its timber assets, the company says not right now.

The Federal Way-based forest products company told investors and analysts today that converting its trees to a real estate investment trust as early as next year wouldn't be tax efficient, Bloomberg News reports

“That does not preclude the REIT option in 2010,” Chief Financial Officer Patricia Bedient said today in a presentation to investors in New York.

Weyerhaeuser’s sale of its divisions including fine paper and corrugated packaging prompted speculation that the company would spin off the trees to reduce taxes on profits from timberlands.

“We’re patient, maybe too patient, but we still think the value of the timberland will be shown over time,” Russell Croft, who helps manage $725 million at Croft Leominster Inc., said today in a telephone interview from Baltimore with Bloomberg News.

=> Read more!

Now that Amazon has lots of Kindle devices available for consumers, the company is announcing that it's adding to the number of books you can read on it.

Simon & Schuster Inc. will make 5,000 additional titles available this year. The titles include new releases and bestsellers and "represent the vast majority of sales from the publisher's catalog," the companies said in a release.

We'll see if we can get a list of some of the books that will be available and post them later today.