Regulator Votes to Block Merger of Pepco and Exelon

[bananas]

Source: New York Times

Before Tuesday, Exelon seemed close to sealing its $6.8 billion takeover of a fellow utility operator, Pepco Holdings, having secured support from most of the power regulators it needed to satisfy.

But the utilities commission for Washington, D.C., has upended those plans, sending shares in Pepco tumbling as much as 20 percent.

<snip>

The regulator said it had received written testimony from more than 3,000 residents, nonprofit organizations and small businesses.

“The public policy of the district is that the local electric company should focus solely on providing safe, reliable and affordable distribution service to district residences, businesses and institutions,” Betty Ann Kane, the commission’s chairwoman, said in a statement. “The evidence in the record is that sale and change in control proposed in the merger would move us in the opposite direction.”

<snip>

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/26/business/dealbook/regulator-votes-to-block-merger-of-pepco-and-exelon.html

[bananas]

1. Local Official Celebrates Rejection of Pepco-Exelon Merger in D.C.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Local-Official-Celebrates-Rejection-of-Pepco-Exelon-Merger-in-DC/

Local Official Celebrates Rejection of Pepco-Exelon Merger in D.C.

Council member Roger Berliner had criticized Montgomery County for agreeing to settlement with Exelon that cleared path for merger approval in Maryland

By Aaron Kraut
Published: 2015.08.25 03:15

A local official who came out against the $6.8 billion merger between power companies Pepco and Exelon is celebrating Tuesday, after regulators in Washington, D.C., became the first to deny approval of the move.

Council member Roger Berliner, a frequent critic of Pepco and an energy lawyer, praised the three members of the D.C. Public Service Commission who unanimously rejected the merger, saying it was not in the best interest of ratepayers.

<snip>

“I applaud the District of Columbia Public Service Commission’s courageous decision today to do what no other Commission was prepared to do: stand up for consumers and the environment,” Berliner said in a statement. “The Pepco-Exelon merger could cause serious harm to the residents of both D.C. and Montgomery County, and it is the duty of our Public Service Commissions to ensure that ratepayers are protected.”

Berliner helped form a coalition that testified against the merger in front of the Maryland PSC mainly because of concerns that Chicago-based Exelon would favor its nuclear power over renewable technologies such as solar and wind power.

<snip>

[elleng]

2. Certainly is good news.