Perspective

Jim Kerr outlines how investor-owned companies, and Southern Company specifically, are responding to ESG issues with transparency and real environmental, social, and governance progress.

Here is a small sample of Sue Kelly’s own words of wonderful wit and wisdom over the years, excerpted from her APPA blog.

David Owen was the First Honoree in June 2017. Now Sue Kelly Becomes the Second. Conversations with former APPA CEO Mark Crisson, former FERC Chair Cheryl LaFleur, NRECA General Counsel Rich Meyer, Morgan Meguire LLC CEO Deborah Sliz, and American Municipal Power EVP Jolene Thompson.

“We’ve been aggressive in our clean energy plan and we’ve committed to reduce carbon output by at least 50% by 2030 and are striving for net-zero emissions by 2050.”

Roundtable discussion with the chief financial officers of Consolidated Edison (Robert Hoglund), ITC Holdings (Gretchen Holloway), PSEG (Dan Cregg) and Xcel Energy (Bob Frenzel).

Why should we have supposed that residential bills would be significantly lower under competition?

A large percentage of utility poles in Japan are either made of concrete or are underground, not only to withstand typhoons, but of course earthquakes.

The result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’s decision is a whole lot of uncertainty. If you are an electric utility, you don’t know for sure who will be allowed to attach their lines (or antennas) to your poles. If you are a state legislator or regulator, you don’t know if any laws or regulations you adopt will be upheld.

Utilities need to find unconventional ways to take advantage of market innovation without over-taxing or under-utilizing internal resources and capabilities.

While FERC is wise to consider how its sister federal agencies estimate the cost of equity, a review of those agencies’ estimation methods spotlights fatal flaws in FERC’s proposed new approach.