Utility News

The New York Times:

IF your grandmother played the market, she probably invested in utilities for safety and income, not capital gains. She would need to adjust her strategy today.

Many utilities do not have the dividend yields they once did, and the market’s recent turbulence has hit the sector as much as, or more than, others. As for capital gains, shareholders have accrued plenty, whether they expected to or not.

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CNN Money:

Constellation Energy Group (CEG) has threatened to build a new nuclear reactor in New York instead of Maryland if the state’s political and regulatory environment doesn’t improve.

In a statement released Tuesday, Michael J. Wallace, a Constellation executive vice president, said the company hopes to break ground on a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs as early as 2008, with completion scheduled by 2015. “However, if we encounter delays in Maryland, we are prepared to proceed with the first EPR (nuclear reactor) at our Nine Mile Point nuclear plant location in New York,” Wallace said.

The terse statement marked Constellation’s latest effort to challenge efforts by Maryland regulators and lawmakers to revisit deregulation.

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