Frontlines

Barbarians at the Gates

FERC... SEC... CFTC...Congress ... Ratings Agencies... Stockholders... Bondholders... Private Equity Investors?

No one has yet quantified or qualified the devastation to industry reputation, electric competition, or energy companies' future earnings power caused by the current round of energy trading scandals that is shaking the industry to its core.

Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Bursting The Bubble

Merchants' trading volumes and revenue are still too inflated.

In the post-Enron world, many continue to question the legitimacy of the practice of inflating revenues through the trading business to bolster the company's financial picture.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Biting Pat Wood's Hand

FERC finds the states have teeth, too.

FERC Chairman Pat Wood ought to be commended for trying to extend a hand of cooperation to state PUCs. But certainly he must by now understand that the nature of the state regulator, as the nature of the wolf, is unchangeable.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Indecent Disclosure?

Most pan FERC NOPR, but gas association eyes FERC role.

Citing overlap with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the power industry has largely panned FERC’s proposals to require greater disclosure on financial instruments and derivatives.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Three-Legged Stool

The smart money now treats transmission as a player. Just like generation. Just like load.

Over at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, new chairman Pat Wood has let it be known if he had been in charge, he would have postponed Order 2000.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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The Doomsday Scenario

Debt + secret triggers = another Enron.

Much the same way that bankers used to worry about a “run on the bank,” where there is an overwhelming demand for liquidity that causes a solvent bank to fail, so should energy companies be worried that their use of material adverse change (MAC) clauses might trigger an overwhelming demand for liquidity that causes a once solvent energy company to fail. Of course, the banks now have the Fed to protect the financial system from a liquidity crisis. No such luck for the energy industry.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Politically Inelastic?

Electric pricing issues are hard to overcome.

Do politicians really mean what they say when they call for competitive markets in electricity at the wholesale and retail levels? Rivals of California Gov. Gray Davis champion competitive electric markets. But what if, after elections, California markets are then fixed (with unanimous consent), and prices continue to be high? Will that politician still stand behind competitive markets?
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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California: Beginning Anew

The 2002 rhetoric sounds like pro-electric competition, but is it too little, too late?

In its recent efforts to tie up the loose ends left from the California Crisis, is the state setting itself up for a sequel, California Crisis II: A Not So Beautiful Market?
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Forgetting Someone, Mr. Secretary?

The DOE's new hydrogen car initiative won't get very far without electric utilities.

Secretary Spencer Abraham announced that the DOE and the nation’s carmakers would create a public-private partnership to promote hydrogen as a primary fuel for cars and trucks. He didn't mention how much the program would cost, how long it would take, or define what infrastructure the government would develop to support hydrogen transportation.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Pat Packs a Punch

FERC's new chairman runs roughshod over a reeling industry.

By a vote of 3-1, FERC had crowned the Midwest Independent System Operator—MISO—as belle of the ball. In so doing, it scorned the proposed Alliance Regional Transmission Organization.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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