Utility News

Business Week:

The U.S. nuclear industry believes that delays and cost overruns, which helped kill new plant construction in the late 1970s, are less likely today, thanks to now-standardized reactor designs and a streamlined U.S. government licensing process. That process has yet to be tested, though, and costs for new plants are climbing. Two years ago, the price of a 1,500-megawatt reactor was pegged at $2 billion to $3 billion. Now it’s up to $7 billion and rising, as the cost of concrete, steel, and other materials and labor soars. MidAmerican Energy Holdings (BRK), a gas and electric utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK), shelved its own nuke plan earlier this year, saying it no longer made economic sense. “The country badly needs new nuclear plants to deal with the climate issue,” says John W. Rowe, chief executive officer of Exelon (EXC), currently the largest nuke operator, and chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s trade group. “But they are very expensive, very high-risk projects.”

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USAToday:

Cellphone company T-Mobile USA is set to launch a nationwide service that lets customers place unlimited domestic calls with their landline phones over a broadband connection.

The service, called T-Mobile AtHome, will cost $10 per month when it rolls out on July 2.

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Investor’s Business Daily via Yahoo!:

Natural gas futures have vaulted 154% since its Aug. 27 low to $13.203 per million British thermal units on Monday.

The run-up has outpaced the rise in crude oil, which has doubled.

Consumers may not feel the full impact immediately, but continued high prices will push up monthly utility bills, if they haven’t already done so. Americans often use natural gas for heating stove tops and water, but they see a bigger hit when they fire up gas furnaces in the cold winter months. Also, rising prices show up in electricity costs, with natural gas providing the fuel for more power plants across the country.

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USA Today:

As skyrocketing food and gasoline prices strain budgets, utilities are disconnecting many more customers who fall behind on their bills, and even moderate-income households are getting zapped.

Electricity and natural gas shutoffs are up at least 15% in several states compared with last year. Totals for some utilities have more than doubled.

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The New York Times:

As the United States moves toward taking action on global warming, practical experience with carbon markets in the European Union raises a critical question: Will such systems ever work?

Backers of these markets, which involve setting limits on greenhouse gases and then allowing companies to buy and sell emission permits, see the approach as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to control the gases in advanced economies. The presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have both endorsed the idea.

Yet in Europe, which created the world’s largest greenhouse gas market three years ago, early evidence suggests the whole approach could fail. Carbon dioxide emissions are still rising in many industries, not falling.

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The Washington Post:

House and Senate leaders agreed yesterday on surveillance legislation that could shield telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits, handing President Bush one of the last major legislative victories he is likely to achieve.

The agreement extends the government’s ability to eavesdrop on espionage and terrorism suspects while effectively providing a legal escape hatch for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecom firms. They face more than 40 lawsuits that allege they violated customers’ privacy rights by helping the government conduct a warrantless spying program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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AP via WCAX TV:

A bill increasing penalties for contaminating public drinking water supplies has received final legislative approval.

If signed into law by Governor Paterson, the legislation would set fines of up to $200 per day for each violation. It also would allow courts to impose a thousand-dollar criminal penalty and up to a year in jail.

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AP via Forbes:

An Oppenheimer analyst said Wednesday he is taking a more cautious stance on shares of rural local exchange carriers because of regulatory concerns.

Analyst Timothy Horan wrote in a note to investors that the Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing Universal Service Fund audit could affect rural carriers throughout the sector.

The service fund subsidizes phone service for rural and low-income customers through a surcharge on almost all long-distance bills. Horan said the FCC is conducting about 400 audits as part of the campaign, up from 50 last year.

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Dow Jones via CNN Money:

Exelon Corp., one of the largest U.S. power companies, is completing a plan that will make it carbon neutral, the company’s chairman said Monday.

Jon Rowe said the Chicago-based electricity delivery and generation company wouldn’t completely eliminate carbon emissions from its generation fleet.

However, he said, Exelon could achieve zero net emissions through a mixture of carbon offset projects, reduced use of natural gas plants and efficiency steps.

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Reuters:

A New York administrative law judge recommended on Monday that state regulators disapprove Iberdrola SA’s $4.5 billion takeover of U.S. utility Energy East Corp., saying the deal is not in the public’s best interest.

New York’s Public Service Commission — regulators who oversee the state’s utilities — could kill the deal by not approving it.

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