Archive for October, 2006
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
The Newark Star Ledger:
The state yesterday reached a tentative agreement with Public Service Electric & Gas to settle outstanding utility rate cases, allowing the state’s biggest gas and electric utility to collect $87 million more in revenue from its customers.
The proposed settlements would lead to a tiny increase in electric bills for the utility’s 2.1 million customers, but result in a modest decrease in monthly gas bills for about 1.7 million customers because the price of natural gas has dropped so dramatically in re cent months.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
Third quarter profit reports are coming in:
PPL’s profits were up 15%
FirstEnergy’s earnings climbed 37%
FPL profits jumped 55%
CEG’s profits rose 75%
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
AP via CBS2Chicago.com:
Electric provider ComEd plans to ask state regulators to approve a delivery rate increase in 2007, despite a plan that already will hike electricity bills for Illinois customers by an average 22 percent starting in January.
Officials at ComEd and its parent company, Chicago-based Exelon Corp., said they will ask the Illinois Commerce Commission to approve a delivery rate increase sometime during the second quarter of 2007.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 31 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
The New York Times:
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office said yesterday that it opposed a luxury resort planned for the Catskill Mountains, calling it an “unacceptable risk” to New York City’s drinking water system. James M. Tierney, the watershed inspector general in Mr. Spitzer’s office, said in a letter to federal officials that the proposal for a large resort flanking the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center would undercut the city’s efforts to avoid building a water filtration plant at a cost of $6 billion to $8 billion.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 30 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
San Jose Mercury News:
Saying California lags other states in government policies that promote high-speed Internet access, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday signed an executive order to set up a task force to streamline permitting and speed up the construction of broadband networks.
“We have to make sure government is not an obstacle,” Schwarzenegger said during a San Francisco medical symposium exploring how to use high-speed Internet connections to diagnose patients in distant locations.
During a press conference, surrounded by executives from Microsoft, Cisco and Juniper Networks, among others, Schwarzenegger cited a three-year-old TechNet study that found that California ranked 14th among 50 states in government policies that encourage broadband. About half of the state’s population has access to broadband, mirroring national figures.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 30 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
Forbes:
Thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity Sunday from Maryland to Maine as a storm system blasted the region with wind gusting to more than 50 mph, knocking over trees and a tall construction crane. The storm was blamed for two deaths.
Gusts as high as 70 mph were possible Sunday in parts of northern New York state, the National Weather Service said.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 30 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
AP via Forbes:
Verizon Communications Inc.’s profit edged up in the third quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts as a powerful showing by Verizon Wireless and the addition of the MCI long-distance business helped boost the phone company’s revenues nearly 26 percent.
The company said Monday it earned $1.92 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the July-September quarter, up from $1.87 billion, or 68 cents per share in the same period last year. Per-share results fell because Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ) has more shares outstanding than a year ago.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
The Trenton Times:
The state is asking an independent expert to examine how New Jersey’s four utilities buy power for their customers to ensure ratepayers are not paying prices that are too high.
The action by the state Board of Public Utilities yesterday aims to resolve those concerns before next February, when the electric utilities purchase the power they need for customers at an annual online auction. The prices paid this past year were 55 percent higher than the previous year, and during the past two years have gone up 90 percent.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
The Chicago Tribune:
Exelon Corp., the largest U.S. utility owner, reported a third-quarter loss of $44 million because of a charge related to a rate decision by Illinois regulators that cut the value of its Chicago operations.
The loss was 7 cents per share, compared with net income of $734 million, or $1.09, a year earlier, Chicago-based Exelon said in a statement today. Sales fell 1.6 percent to $4.4 billion as cooler weather than a year earlier lowered utility sales.
The actions of state regulators caused the loss. Exelon wrote down $776 million after the July decision in Illinois and recorded a $42 million charge for the failed $17.8 billion acquisition of Public Service Enterprise Group, blocked by New Jersey regulators last month. Excluding one-time costs, profit rose 7 percent to $609 million, less than analysts expected.
No Comments »
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: General
The Wall Street Journal (subscription):
Deregulating electricity has long been an ardent goal of many in the U.S. and other industrialized nations. Instead of stodgy utilities collecting nearly guaranteed profits and having little motive to improve their efficiency, backers have hoped deregulation would bring innovation and lower prices to an essential sector of the economy. The reality is messier, as consumers fail to take advantage of their new options — or fail to gain any options — while clever companies that know how to work the system prosper.
No Comments »
