NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 14, 2004--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it views Calpine Corp.'s (B/Negative/--) consent solicitation to amend the indentures of certain public notes as credit neutral. Of note is the amendment that would allow the company to incur liens on assets to secure obligations arising from power and fuel contracts for commercial and trading activities. This amendment could effectively reduce Calpine's liquidity needs by allowing Calpine to secure margins on power contracts with the assets themselves, rather than posting cash or letters of credit as collateral. It could also affect the recovery prospects of the lenders in a Calpine bankruptcy scenario. However, under a typical power purchase arrangement, before any such counterparty lien
