Strange, how glowing this article is. No negative comments from any consumer group, actually no comments at all from anyone other than Exelon. Poor, poor Exelon, forced by a cruel and unfeeling legislature to have to provide power to Illinoisians without being able to gouge them. Hasn't seemed to hurt their stock much (still hovering around $60 a share, up from $50 earlier this year).
Exelon may seek to buy power firm : Exelon Corp. might attempt to acquire a utility or power producer once it resolves an electricity rate dispute in Illinois, Chief Executive John Rowe said Friday.The debate's outcome, currently a stalemate between leaders of the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate, could determine the type of company Exelon targets, Rowe said.
In September Exelon abandoned the nation's largest utility takeover ever, the purchase of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. for $17.8 billion, citing excessive concessions demanded by New Jersey regulators.
The Illinois House has passed a rate freeze that Exelon has said would bankrupt its Chicago utility, Commonwealth Edison.
“We'd like to see a more stable, more widely accepted settlement in Illinois before we take on something major,” Rowe said.
...
The company might target a smaller power producer that does not own a regulated utility, because such deals do not need state approval and transaction costs are lower, he said.“It really comes down to the two basics: economics and politics,” Rowe said. “We had a very economic transaction in New Jersey, but the politics of trying to do it were too expensive.”
He said Exelon might buy power plants to increase sales in Texas, New York and New England, and sell facilities to reduce its presence in Illinois and Pennsylvania.
ooh, and poor, poor Exelon, forced to own nuclear energy plants without knowing where spent fuel will go.
Rowe also said Exelon wants government assurance of a disposal site for spent fuel before it will proceed with the nuclear reactor it has proposed in Texas.“The government may have fooled me on 17 reactors that I currently run, but I'm the one who's being foolish if I build a new plant without knowing what they're going to do with the spent fuel,” Rowe said.
I wonder how much money the Chicago Tribune collects for publishing such propaganda? Is it just the advertising for ComEd that runs in the business section? or a little extra on the side.
