Utility News

GovExec.com:

Lawmakers representing New York have introduced a bill that would permit the head of homeland security to declare no-fly zones around certain nuclear power plants, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sees little need for such a measure.

In a post-Sept. 11 world nuclear power reactors are seen as potential targets for terrorist attacks that could have disastrous consequences should radioactive material be released into the environment. Just 35 miles north of Manhattan, the Indian Point power facility seems to embody this concern.

As the owners of the Indian Point reactors seek renewed licenses to operate for the next three decades, New York’s attorney general filed a legal brief supporting demands that federal officials in making their decision consider terrorism risks and the feasibility of evacuating the surrounding area.

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Reuters:

U.S. rural telecommunications carrier Embarq Corp is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone stealing its copper cables in Las Vegas amid a global crime spree targeting increasingly valuable metals.

Embarq said on Wednesday that copper cable theft has become a growing problem, particularly in Las Vegas, its largest market, where thieves have snipped away part of its aerial lines.

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AP via OakRidger.com:

A fire at a power substation Wednesday forced the nation’s largest public utility to ask major industrial customers to reduce their electricity use as a heat wave continued to dog the region it serves.

The fire caused a partial shutdown at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Kentucky as temperatures were predicted to rise near 100 degrees through Friday in the Knoxville-based utility’s seven-state territory.

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Dow Jones via CNN Money:

The New York State Public Service Commission, or NYPSC, Wednesday unanimously approved the $7.3 billion buyout of U.S.-based KeySpan Corp. by U.K. and U.S gas and power networks operator National Grid PLC, subject to conditions.

The decision clears a final hurdle in a deal announced 18 months ago, which legislators had said didn’t provide enough benefits for rate payers.

The commissioners expressed concerns about service reliability issues and the financial debt structure but said the deal presented a net value savings to New York State customers of approximately $700 million over a 10-year period.

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Connecticut Post:

The state Department of Public Utility Control has awarded $340 million in contracts for three companies to build new power plants and one to encourage people to conserve electricity. The contracts are part of a strategy to reduce electric costs, with a consultant to the DPUC program estimating that Connecticut customers could see a reduction in costs of more than $500 million.

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AOL Money & Finance:

The utilities sector of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 6.3 percent during the market swoon over the last month, making it one of the better performers in the index.

For the year-to-date, however, the sector is up 5.2 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 6.9 percent during the period from July 19, when it hit a high of 1,553.08, to Aug. 17, but remained up 2 percent for the year through Friday.

The best-performing company in the utilities sector over the last four weeks has been Southern Co ., up 4.2 percent. The worst performer has been Dynegy Inc., down 18.1 percent.

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Thomas Friedman (NYT Subscription):

Have your eyes recently popped out of your head when you opened your electric bill? Do you, like me, live in one of those states where electricity has been deregulated and the state no longer oversees the generation price so your utility rates have skyrocketed since 2002?

If so, you need to listen to a proposal being aired by Jim Rogers, the chairman and chief executive of Duke Energy, and recently filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission. (Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte.) It’s called “save-a-watt,” and it aims to turn the electricity/utility industry upside down by rewarding utilities for the kilowatts they save customers by improving their energy efficiency rather than rewarding them for the kilowatts they sell customers by building more power plants.

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MarketWatch:

September natural gas was last down 4%, or 24 cents, at $5.80 per million British thermal units. It traded as low as $5.77, a level not seen since mid-February of 2005 with Hurricane Dean unlikely to damage to key energy-production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

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The New York Times:

A federal judge has sided with Connecticut officials in their battle to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline beneath Long Island Sound. Judge Stefan R. Underhill of Federal District Court ruled against the federal Commerce Department, which three years ago rejected Connecticut’s objection to the plan. The judge said the department’s contention that national interest outweighed adverse coastal effects was not supported by the evidence. Connecticut’s attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, released the decision yesterday, and said it doomed the project. John Sheridan, a spokesman for the project, said the two companies supporting it, Spectra Energy and the Keyspan Corporation, had not decided on a next step.

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The New York Times:

Pipes and tunnels are aging fast with many of these subterranean networks nearly a century old. In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that it would take nearly $277 billion to keep the nation’s water distribution systems up to par over the next 20 years. That is a lot of money. And to get the necessary federal, state and local funds, it will take a lot of public support for a system people blissfully take for granted.

The fear is that if too many people convert to bottled water, there would be even less political support for such spending. The last thing America needs is two water streams — one for the rich and another for the rest of us.

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