The same day that Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook for utilities, based on rising debt, investment banker Morgan Stanley says it’s a good time to load up on some utility stocks. Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Wilson has upgraded the utility sector to “outperform” the broader stock market. Low-risk stocks, such as those for utilities, … More Morgan Stanley likes utility stocks as a defensive play

Moody’s Investors Service has lowered its outlook for U.S. regulated utilities from stable to negative. The credit rating service said Monday, “This marks the first time the regulated utilities sector has carried a negative outlook since Moody’s began conducting sector outlooks.” The source of the revised outlook is the Trump administration-Republican federal tax reform, which … More Moody’s lowers utility credit outlook to negative

The Trump administration’s nascent, second-generation plan to bail out uncompetitive coal and nuclear plants, bypassing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, got a decided thumbs down from the Republican-dominated FERC and several Republican Senators on Tuesday. Greentech Media commented, “Outside of politicians from coal states, the DOE’s plan doesn’t have many supporters in Washington.” The Senate … More Trump’s coal-nuke bailout lacks GOP support

Four years ago, I wrote in POWER magazine, “Geoengineering: A practical climate work-around or just plan crazy?” At the time, and still today, the mainstream approach to global warming was political and administrative, under the idea that the world could come together and mount a planet-wide plan to cooperatively reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Based on … More Climate change geoengineering gets a boost

Donald Trump has no coherent economic policy. It’s all fly-by-night, seat-of-the pants stuff. Trump truly believes he can command the U.S. economy. It’s not ideology but his narcissism and megalomania at work. Trump has become an accidental socialist, devoted to government central planning of the economy. He’s choosing winners and losers in the economy, most … More Trump’s unwitting socialism and mercantilism

Bogus. Arbitrary. Capricious. Add to that, stupid, unproductive, and dangerous. That’s the best summary I can come up with for the widely-reported White House plan to order the Department of Energy to slam uneconomic coal and nuclear plants into the heretofore competitive wholesale electric markets. Bloomberg and other news outlets are reporting, based on a … More Trump tells DOE to destroy competitive electric markets

The inexorable collapse of coal-fired generating capacity continues, with four more major plants set to retire in the next two days. The Trump administration’s proclaimed goal of saving coal appears entirely irrelevant as coal plant shutdowns continued apace. So, too, does the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, fueled by Michael Bloomberg’s deep pockets, despite the … More Coalmageddon today and tomorrow

While most of the U.S. faces little risk of systemic electricity shortages this summer, that’s not the case for Texas and California, according to both the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. NERC issued its summer reliability assessment this morning, while FERC’s summer assessment came May 17. The yardstick both … More Are electric shortages coming this summer?

Does the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s recent refusal to rehear approval of a Dominion gas pipeline foreshadow the outcome of the commission’s ongoing review of its pipeline siting policy? Commissioner Rich Glick says he fears that’s the case. Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur shares Glick’s concern. Both are Democrats, which highlights a partisan split on a commission … More Has FERC tipped its hand on pipeline policy review?

Thinking about buying an electric car as a small step to protectng the planet against global warming? Maybe you should think again. First, the environmental advantages of cars that run entirely on electricity and not on fossil fuels may be more hype than reality, according to economist Jonathan Lesser in a report for the conservative … More Rethinking electric cars