Portland General Electric

Business & Money

Experts debate whether KKR's leveraged buyout of UniSource Energy is right for the industry.

Business & Money

Experts debate whether KKR's leveraged buyout of UniSource Energy is right for the industry.

"From a public policy standpoint, should a utility that provides a vital public good be owned by a private group that gains ownership by taking on a high degree of debt (risk)?"

Frontlines

Bankruptcy may not be better for ratepayers.

Frontlines

Bankruptcy may not be better for ratepayers.

Off Peak

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation

Utility deregulation is the biggest consumer rip-off since the S&L debacle, activist Harvey Wasserman argues. He says electric competition has wider and more deadly implications: costs running to trillions of dollars, environmental threats, and the further delay of renewables like wind and solar energy.

Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power

Off Peak

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation

Utility deregulation is the biggest consumer rip-off since the S&L debacle, activist Harvey Wasserman argues. He says electric competition has wider and more deadly implications: costs running to trillions of dollars, environmental threats, and the further delay of renewables like wind and solar energy.

Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power

Off Peak

School plays teach efficiency, creativity, and self-confidence.

School plays teach efficiency, creativity, and self-confidence.

Bumbling Melvin Markham is a hero. He just doesn't know it. As the central character in an innovative school play, Melvin learns that everyone can save energy and the environment.

Business & Money

Will dividends become the sole focus for investor valuations of utilities?


Will dividends become the sole focus for investor valuations of utilities?

With last month's favorable Senate vote to repeal the tax on dividends from 2004-2006 and reduce it 50 percent this year, and the high-profile conference committee meetings between the House and the Senate at press time, many are asking if investors are, or should be, beginning to evaluate utility companies solely on the basis of the dividend.

Commission Watch

The commission tacks a new name onto a familiar concept.


The commission tacks a new name onto a familiar concept.

By now it is old news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on April 28 back-pedaled on standard market design (SMD), even renaming it the "wholesale power market platform." But SMD is far from dead, as some had wished. Instead, it is merely toned down, bowing to political furor and regional differences.

Corporate Accountability: Utilities Take Stock

The real, painful reform has only just begun.

The real, painful reform has only just begun.

It has been almost a year since Enron imploded into bankruptcy, but rather than solve problems, the event has only brought uncertainty-credit rating downgrades, a drop in investor confidence, and heightened scrutiny from the Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Return on Equity: How Regulators Doled Out The Dollars

Results of the annual Survey of Energy Utility Rate Proceedings.

(December, 2001) The results of our annual survey of authorized rates of return on common equity for state-regulated energy utilities show a continued reliance on traditional cost-of-service ratemaking in many states. At the same time the results also show that rate case filings do not dominate the field of economic regulation the way they might have in times of higher rates of inflation and prior to the advent of price cap regulation and market restructuring programs.