PSC urged to say no to Iberdrola utility deal
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- June
- 16
The state Public Service Commission should reject the planned takeover of Energy East by the Spanish energy firm Iberdrola, an administrative law judge recommended today.
The $4.5 billion deal involving the company that owns New York State Electric and Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric should be turned down because “it does not satisfy the net positive benefits requirement’’ that the PSC normally mandates for such transactions, said Administrative Law Judge Rafael Epstein.
Epstein’s decision, which follows on the heels of a similar recommendation by the staff of the commission, is not the final word on the matter. The full commission will vote on whether to allow the deal, probably later this summer.
Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest energy companies, had said it intended to invest up to $2 billion in new wind-energy projects upstate if it was allowed to buy out Energy East. Critics have warned that the combination of significant energy-producing facilities, besides owning the transmission and distribution assets of a utility, might give the firm too much market power.
In addition, the firm so far has not been able to reach an agreement with the commission staff on how much it should promise to cut customer rates as part of the deal.
Iberdrola has argued that its investment, especially in wind power, would represent a significant step in the state’s effort to become less dependent on fossil fuels.
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on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm by Jay Gallagher.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
