The Calif utilities transformed themselves into holding companies a few years
back. The incumbent utility pieces have got severe cash problems but the other
pieces of the two holding companies are doing very well.
FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) astonishingly on Dec. 28th let
PG&E put an additional fence between the utility piece and the rest, so that
the cash and assets of the rest can't be touched by the sister company. People
are a little annoyed.
A little annoyed, yes, like having the "Annoyed cow disease."
We'll see what happens.
Gene Coyle
MORE: Even within the utility piece, they have declared that there are two
pots of money, never to be mingled. The utilities still retain signifigant
generating capacity and are selling the output at high market prices. This
offsets roughly half of what they claim to be losing. The utilities contention
is that the cash in-flow is to go in a separate and untouchable pocket from the
emptying cash out-flow pocket.
Gene
Ken Hanly wrote:
> How could it be otherwise as long as there is a cap on prices to consumers
> but the utilities purchase in a (partially) deregulated market at higher
> prices.
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Shemano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 4:56 PM
> Subject: [PEN-L:7080] RE: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again
>
> > It appears to be a rather straightforward cash flow problem. Even
> assuming
> > their assets on a balance sheet exceed their liabilities, because those
> > assets are illiquid (e.g. plants and equipment), they can still be unable
> to
> > pay their debts as they become due. (FYI -- there is no requirement that
> a
> > company be insolvent to file for bankruptcy, but the inability to pay
> debts
> > as they become due is a form of insolvency in any event). According to
> the
> > utilities, they have paid $12 billion more for electricity than they have
> > collected from consumers since May 2000. That is an incredible cash drain
> > and they are now out of cash.
> >
> > David Shemano
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 2:38 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: [PEN-L:7075] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again
> >
> >
> > David, how could these bandits be in the hole? I would be sure to defer
> > Gene Coyle in this regard, is that I thought they had been making money in
> > hand over fist for many months before the financial crunch hit
> > --
> > Michael Perelman
> > Economics Department
> > California State University
> > Chico, CA 95929
> >
> > Tel. 530-898-5321
> > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
