- FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE -11.4%) and American Electric Power (AEP -2.5%) are sharply lower after the FERC decides to review income guarantee agreements, which means the deals are not valid unless the two companies apply for and receive federal approval.
- The federal ruling pre-empts the ruling by Ohio's public utilities commission, which had considered for nearly two years plans to raise rates to subsidize some older coal-fired and nuclear power plants before unanimously approving them last month.
- "The decision is a disappointing and unfortunate intrusion by FERC into Ohio’s ability to protect its retail customers from market volatility and plan for the state’s generation needs,” AEP says.
- Competing electric utility Dynegy (DYN +3.3%) praises the FERC decision, saying the proposals accepted by Ohio regulators were "exorbitantly priced."
- Now read FirstEnergy beats by $0.05 and American Electric Power misses by $0.03, misses on revenue