Exelon


A deep Arctic freeze socks in the Northeast, and every home’s furnace is working overtime. The surge of natural gas use for furnaces means power plants can’t get enough fuel. Power fails, and furnaces can’t start. Gas pipeline compressors lose power, and natural gas flow stops.

What then? Keep reading →

Downtown Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

When Americans think about the states that lead in energy, they conjure up Texas, California, perhaps Alaska or West Virginia and – with fracking – now Pennsylvania and Ohio. Maryland isn’t an obvious choice. Keep reading →


The power industry has conducted a complex dance of consolidation and division over the past few decades in response to technological disruption, regulatory trends and financial shifts.

Recent years have brought about a new wave of consolidation and utility bankers have been busy ushering companies into new larger footprints through buying complementary assets rather than embarking on broad new competition-based construction and infrastructure investment programs. Constellation is now part of Exelon, and Duke Energy is adding further to its portfolio with the acquisition of Progress Energy, the two highest-profile deals in a spate of transactions all the more surprising for the tightness in financial markets since the 2008 crisis. Keep reading →


Energy policy in the US has been a prominent issue leading up to the elections this fall and the topic could gain momentum along the way. Commodity price manipulation, fracking, the Keystone pipeline and environmental regulations were just a few of the topics discussed at a breakfast panel held by the American Petroleum Institute in Washington DC this morning.

Recent upward trending US oil and natural gas production is great news for the nation, but the political system is driven by negatives, said former Senator and Congressman of North Dakota, Byron Dorgan. Keep reading →

FERC approves stipulation and consent agreement with Constellation Energy Commodities Group FERC

This file picture taken on February 28, 2012 shows workers walking at the emergency operation center of the stricken Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture.

At the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the nuclear industry outside Japan and central Europe is largely continuing as before the accident, says a World Energy Council report. Keep reading →


With government incentives and long-term contracts, what is there not to like?

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has turned into something of a sage. As a long-term value investor, his decisions are followed with great interest. So when MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the utility arm of Berkshire Hathaway, bought First Solar’s 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm Power Plant in San Luis Obispo, California for an undisclosed amount, everyone took note. Keep reading →


Santa arrived a few days early for environmentalists, but the coal industry is getting Scrooge.

The Environmental Protection Agency released its Utility MACT rule on Wednesday, issuing a controversial order to slash mercury and other hazardous emissions from coal-fired power plants. By 2016, all plants must emit as little mercury as the best 12% do today, lowering national emissions 90%. Keep reading →


The theory of capacity markets is simple: in a competitive market, electricity prices for future supply will rise as shortages loom, drawing in competitors to profit by building new generating capacity.

In practice, it may not be working out that way, and simmering discontent over how much consumers are paying for future reliability, and what they’re getting for it, may become open, and bipartisan, rebellion in 2012. Keep reading →


Power companies threatened US power regulators with the potential of rolling blackouts and unreliable electricity supply if they are forced to comply with what they claim are tight deadlines for meeting new emissions rules.

The companies told a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hearing they need more time to comply with new environmental regulations that would require the retirement or retrofit of hundreds of coal-fired plants. Emissions of mercury and other pollutants from those units would exceed the new standards. Keep reading →

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