On July 26, 2002, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said that it placed the corporate credit ratings and debt ratings of Cleco Corp. (BBB+/Watch Neg/A-2) and its utility, Cleco Power, LLC on CreditWatch with negative implications to reflect the worsening credit quality of the counterparties in the company's tolling agreements and financing risk associated with the Acadia power project. Pineville, Louisiana-based Cleco has about $1.1 billion in debt outstanding as of June 30, 2002. The tolling agreement with Williams Energy Marketing on Cleco's Evangeline project could be affected by the eroding credit quality at The Williams Cos. Inc., which was recently downgraded by Standard&Poor's to deeply speculative grade. In addition to the Williams toll, Cleco has tolling agreements
