"You are old, father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head -- Do you think, at your age, it is right? "In my youth," father William replied to his son, "I feared it might injure the brain; But, now that I'm perfectly ... Read More
Archives for November 2006
an imaginary flower that never fades.
Some of the blockbuster numbers from the collapse of Amaranth are detailed in this story from Bloomberg News. Amaranth melted down in September with $4.6 billion in losses. On September 19, Citadel Investment Group and JP Morgan Chase rode to the rescue. After holding half of the business for two ... Read More
Should We Stay or Should We Go?
The message is finally getting through to small towns in northern Illinois: say goodbye to ComEd soon or pay to stay. Stories like this one in the Aurora Beacon are typical. The Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Cooperative (NIMEC) has signed up 80 local governments to leave basic electric ... Read More
Don’t Do It!
That's what Michael Peevey says. Peevey is the president of California's ICC, the Public Utilities Commission. He was appointed by Gov Gray Davis in 2002 to help pick up $9 billion worth of utility bills that California consumers are still paying today. Gray paid the bill, too. He is the only ... Read More
Gas Goes … Nowhere
Dow Jones reports: "Traders said gas has been trading 'sideways' and 'rangebound' for the past month between $7.60/MMBtu and $8.20/MMBtu. With 3.45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in storage and mixed weather during the past three weeks, it was hard for traders to decide whether they wanted to ... Read More
Watt’s Next?
A train wreck, according to an editorial in the Trib today. ComEd isn't crying wolf about bankruptcy. It will be much easier for ComEd to take that route than it was for Pacific Gas & Electric a few years ago. ComEd has done the due diligence. The ring fence around ComEd will insulate Exelon ... Read More
Watt’s Happening
The Associated Press reports from the energy patch, otherwise known as the Land of Oz. It's not even Texas. The story rests fundamentally on a conspiracy theory that oil companies manipulate markets. I suppose that’s true sometimes, but on a daily basis, it’s all about making money according to the ... Read More
Watt’s Not Happening?
The Tribune reports that alternative sources of power aren't flowing in Chicago as planned. In fact, the "city hasn't bought any green energy since 2004." According to the Trib, Mayor Daley's "2001 commitment to buy renewable energy helped Gamesa Corp., a Spanish turbine manufacturer, attract ... Read More
Winter Weather One Way or Another
Your tax dollars at work and on display here in the form of the government's final winter weather forecast. The G still says it will be warmer than normal but cooler than last year. The forecast has already been baked into market expectations, so not much happens even when the G reiterates its ... Read More
National Commission on Energy Policy Very Boring!
Commissioner Susan Tierney says: Much of the problem is that “Energy Policy” in this country is exceedingly detailed and complicated, shaped by individual laws, budget resolutions, tax policies and regulations adopted by federal and state legislatures and by countless agencies exerting influence ... Read More