Credit ratings agencies put the squeeze on merchant power.
Have they gone too far? Have ratings agencies become overzealous in their efforts to rein in energy merchants? Many in the industry are coming to that belief after Aquila, one of the industry's most respected companies and leaders, announced it would exit the merchant energy trading sector in late July. It said it could no longer meet the credit requirements imposed by ratings agencies to maintain that business.
Experts debate how energy companies should be valued in the wake of electric restructuring and Enron.
News Digest
NYPA's CEO clarifies details of the Power Authority's auction of nukes to Entergy.
Several comments are in order concerning the analysis by Dan Donoghue and David Haarmeyer of the pending sale of the New York Power Authority's Indian Point 3 and James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plants to Entergy Corp. (, June 15, 2000, p. 90).
Frontlines
Prices Hit a Pique
California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?
What did they know and when did they know it? That's what California consumers are asking utility regulators and system operators, now that the heat of summer has made a shambles of the state's vision of electricity competition.
Lessons learned from Cinergy's losses in commodity markets.
After a second summer of extreme weather, contract defaults and consequent financial losses to energy companies, the financial community and shareholders are holding utilities ever more accountable when it comes to managing risk, say analysts. Moreover, they're showing zero tolerance for failure.
On Aug.
Antitrust is not another form of regulation. Antitrust
is an alternative to regulation
and, where feasible, a better alternative.
(em Stephen G. Breyer,
"Antitrust, Deregulation, and the Newly Liberated Marketplace,"
75 Calif. Law Rev. 1005, 1007 (1987).