http://blog.fortnightly.com Industry perspectives and analysis from Fortnightly.com Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:31:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By Courtney Barry   [Editor’s Note: As utilities and regulators consider how to meet evolving green-energy requirements most cost-effectively, they might begin exploring securitization financing mechanisms that utilities previously have used to recover costs from storm recovery, stranded assets and certain environmental obligations. Fortnightly covered this issue most recently ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/10/07/securitizing-green-investments/ By Michael T. Burr   President Barack Obama on Oct. 1, 2009, asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to draft new rules for regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.   The announcement represents a challenge to Congress to push climate legislation forward quickly—in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/10/02/regulating-by-degrees/ Fortnightly subscribers: access full report here Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here for a free trial subscription, and we'll provide access to the full report. Sept. 1, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michael Burr burr@pur.com 320-632-5342 Public Utilities Reports Inc.   Fortnightly 40 Survey: Utility Balance Sheets Strained by Growing Expenses, Declining Sales  Cost pressures portend contentious rate cases. Vienna, ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/09/02/fortnightly-40-survey-new-normal-economy-strains-utility-balance-sheets/ By Michael T. Burr   The London-based Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IME) published a thought-provoking report in August examining the role of geoengineering strategies for dealing with climate change. The report is interesting partly because of the technologies it examines, but mostly because of the policy argument it raises. The report ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/09/01/geoengineering-plan-b-or-plan-a/   By John S. Ferguson Alternative electric generation sources are all the rage as a consequence of mandates for minimum portions being from renewable sources and for limits on greenhouse gas emissions, as is demonstrated by articles in the June 2009 Public Utilities Fortnightly. “IOUs under Pressure,” shows ranges of levelized ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/08/19/green-mandates-and-depreciation-accounting/ Editor’s Note: Fortnightly interviewed Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck this summer. His comments were included in Fortnightly’s June Frontlines column. The complete transcript of the interview follows, as part of an ongoing series of conversations about managing during a time of fundamental change.   FORTNIGHTLY: How does the changing U.S. ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2009/07/28/constellations-shattuck-on-change/ -Mark T. Williams, Boston University Finance & Economics Department For several decades, the top four U.S. independent investment banks—Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers—have been instrumental to the growth of America’s power and gas utility industry. With the sudden shotgun marriage of Merrill Lynch, the bankruptcy of Lehman, ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2008/09/24/plea-to-wall-street-be-good-to-our-i-bankers/ By Michael J. Zimmer I like the fundamentals of the biomass footprint even more now this year. Wind is facing trouble with the PTC extension, turbine product availability, a nagging de minimis capacity factor, and need for transmission that isn’t being developed nationwide. Transmission constraints could strand many new renewable energy ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2008/06/26/scaling-up-biomass/ By Michael T. Burr Every article we publish in Public Utilities Fortnightly is incomplete. The virtual cutting room floor is always littered with content that didn’t fit for one reason or another. For this year’s CEO Forum feature story, we asked several utility leaders about climate change regulation. Very little of what ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2008/06/24/ceos-on-carbon-regulation/ By John A. Bewick The Presidential candidates increasingly are including energy-policy issues in their stump speeches. And the Democratic contenders propose enormous spending programs—from $50 billion (Sen. Hillary Clinton) to $150 billion (Sen. Barack Obama)—with a New-Deal style appeal for investing in the country’s energy future. Last year, Obama said, “This ... http://blog.fortnightly.com/2008/04/02/new-energy-deal/