THE CEO POWER FORUM

Not all utility CEOs are created equal...We take this to be self-evident after the bankruptcies, ratings downgrades, balance-sheet blowups, and financial debacles that took place in the industry in the last five years.

Those utility CEOs that kept the corporate ship sailing smoothly, growing their companies right through those turbulent times also evidenced this premise.

Frontlines

Utilities will face stark tradeoffs in meeting the next round of emissions controls.

Some utility execs gasp at the shear breadth of environmental proposals being bandied about during the past few weeks. Even the environmentalists are calling "historical" the extent to which different kinds of emissions will be regulated.

GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS

The states are getting into the act on greenhouse emissions, and the power industry is getting more proactive. What policy measures are appropriate?

A growing number of U.S. utility companies have come out in favor of federal mandatory limits on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from their facilities.

EU nations are taking slow steps toward an integrated energy market, but they are many paces ahead of U.S. efforts.

Despite recent setbacks in establishing an acceptable balance of voting power among member nations, a new constitution for the European Union (EU) is expected to bring together dozens of separate nations into a single economic and political superpower and lead to an interconnected energy market throughout the European continent-one that will eventually stretch from Portugal to the Baltic Sea and from Ireland to Greece and perhaps beyond.

From reporting to trading, utilities try to meet new expectations.

On the issue of global climate change, most utilities have devoted their attention to tracking developments in Washington, D.C., following the rising and falling fortunes of legislation that could result in federal greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting or regulatory requirements. For the most part, utilities have taken comfort in the resolutely anti-regulatory stance of the Bush administration on greenhouse gas emissions.