NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 14, 2005--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Cleco Corp.'s (BBB/Negative/--) announcement that it had received notice that Calpine Corp. (B/Negative/--) will pursue arbitration related to the two companies' joint venture, Acadia Power Partners LLC, would not immediately affect the rating on Cleco. Reduction or loss of cash flow from the Acadia venture would reduce Cleco's ability to service debt incurred to fund the project and would detract from Cleco's credit quality. Calpine holds a tolling agreement for the output of the 1,160 MW Acadia plant and claims that transmission capacity constraints prevent the sale of the plant's full output. Previously, Calpine threatened to withhold up to half of the payments under the
