Accused Of Using Forged Documents To Boost His Commission
August 19, 2010|By Courant Staff Report
The Department of Public Utility Control suspended the license of energy broker Raymond Sanzone Thursday after a request by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Consumer Counsel Mary Healy.
Sanzone and his company, Turris Associates of Redding, allegedly defrauded an organization representing several of the state’s private schools of $180,000.
State Rep. Fred Brown said he likely will sponsor legislation this winter that would disassemble part of an 11-year-old law that allows cities to keep secret salary and bonus information at municipally-owned power companies.
The issue made its way to public debate earlier this year after Bryan Texas Utilities top management would not hand over detailed budget information to the city’s chief administrator — David Watkins. It took an open records request filed by Watkins, along with the City Council sending BTU a letter demanding the data and then following up with more questions, but Mayor Jason Bienski said they’ve got it now and “so far, everything looks fine.”
The 1999 law was meant to protect city-owned utility companies from having to make public competitive financial information once it opted into deregulating its power; the law and, later, a city ordinance didn’t forbid the city manager or council from seeing those facts. BTU, along with the other dozens just like it, never deregulated, though, and experts say it’d be a financial mistake to do so now. Even BTU officials agree.
So Watkins and legislators have been asking why BTU needs to keep its financial data secret since it no longer has to worry about being on a level playing field with private companies.
Interviewed separately, local Republican lawmakers — Brown of College Station and State Sen. Steve Ogden of Bryan — said they don’t want to intervene and tell a city what it should do, but they are interested in changing the rules that are under their control so the public can see the paper trail.
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer – 2 hrs 2 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The government is about to confirm what many people have felt for some time: The economy barely has a pulse.
The Commerce Department on Friday will revise its estimate for economic growth in the April-to-June period and Wall Street economists forecast it will be cut almost in half, to a 1.4 percent annual rate from 2.4 percent.
That’s a sharp slowdown from the first quarter, when the economy grew at a 3.7 percent annual rate, and economists say it’s a taste of the weakness to come. The current quarter isn’t expected to be much better, with many economists forecasting growth of only 1.7 percent.
Such slow growth won’t feel much like an economic recovery and won’t lead to much hiring. The unemployment rate, now at 9.5 percent, could even rise by the end of the year.
“The economy is going to limp along for the next few months,” said Gus Faucher, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. There’s even a one in three chance it could slip back into recession, he said.
Many temporary factors that boosted the economy earlier this year are fading. Companies built up their inventories after cutting them sharply in the recession to match slower sales. The increase provided a boost to manufacturers, but now many companies’ stockpiles are in line with sales and don’t need to grow as much.
The movement to restore Michigan’s competitive electricity market is growing, with state legislators and businesses taking action in the fight to roll back a poorly conceived statewide cap on competition.
A bipartisan legislative proposal to raise the limitation on electricity competition from 10 percent to 25 percent of a utility’s demand would revisit a 2008 law that prevented the great majority of Michigan’s electricity consumers from choosing their power supplier. The cap was reached in just one year and Michigan consumers, without choice and captive to utilities, have been forced to accept multiple rate hikes. Electric rates for utilities in Michigan, already highest in the region, are once again being increased – most recently for an additional $220 million.
Rolling back competition in the state “has been a proven disaster for Michigan businesses,” said Representative Roy Schmidt, one of the cap expansion proposal’s two sponsors. “States with competitive markets have been able to take advantage of wholesale energy prices that have dropped by 50 to 60 percent.”
Consumers are also taking action to support the legislation. The Electric Competition for Michigan Now Coalition, launched this month, has already attracted 26 businesses and hundreds of supporters on social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook. Earlier this year, 36 businesses joined COMPETE in calling for state action to open up the state’s electricity market to competitive power suppliers.
OutFront
Electric Deregulation Finally Takes OffJonathan Fahey, 03.25.10, 11:40 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated April 12, 2010
Volatile electricity prices and new technologies are finally allowing retail power sellers to deliver on the promise of deregulation.
The giant brain that manages the electricity used by 27 buildings owned by Vornado Realty Trust ( VNO – news – people ) around Washington, D.C. just got smarter. With a new service developed by Constellation Energy ( CEG – news – people )’s NewEnergy subsidiary, Vornado can modulate the power used in those buildings as one in response to electricity prices. Vornado uses less power that way and pays less for it, says Sukanya Paciorek of Vornado.
This is how it was supposed to work when the federal government and 22 states began to deregulate the electricity market starting in the late 1990s. The hope was that power sellers would lower prices and devise creative sales contracts as they competed with each other for customers. It didn’t happen. Instead, prices rose, customers stayed with their old utilities, new generation wasn’t added fast enough to keep up with demand, and utilities began to abandon the retail electricity sales business.
Friday, June 18, 2010
By David Fein, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
For nearly a decade, Pennsylvanians paid the same rate for electricity with no increase in price to account for inflation and global increases in commodity prices. No other commodity in Pennsylvania was price-fixed this way. Not natural gas or heating oil or water.
Yet for some reason, the end of electricity rate caps in Pennsylvania was predicted to be the apocalypse for businesses. But Jan. 1, 2010, came and went, and doomsday never arrived.
In fact, Pennsylvania has a good story to tell when you look back at the first quarter of electric competition in the PPL Corp. service area and look ahead to the opening of the Allegheny/West Penn market locally in 2011.
No less than 27 power providers are competing to serve residents, businesses, schools, universities, hospitals and units of local government where PPL used to have sole purview — and such competition can mean lower rates for customers. As a result, in only three months, 363,000 residential users opted for a new company to deliver their electric needs.
Maryland has officially deregulated their energy policy (since the new bill passed in 1999) and new energy suppliers have the ‘green light’ to start selling.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 13, 2010 – Maryland is just one of the 17 states to currently deregulate their energy policy, giving customers more options for purchasing their electricity and natural gas. Through energy deregulation, you the consumer will keep the same company that delivers your energy, however, the energy supplier will vary and can provide you with a discounted rate.
New suppliers such as North American Power have been offering Maryland residents discounted rates since July 23, 2010 and have over 20,000 active customers, charging just $.0989 per kWh.
Energy deregulation in Maryland also creates new opportunities for customers who want to earn additional income. Companies like North American Power are not only spreading the word through traditional media such as television and radio, but also through a direct sales force, consisting of independent brokers who are earning residual income each month.
This is great news because for a small fee anyone, regardless of age or experience, can take full advantage of energy deregulation in Maryland, save on their bill each month and prosper through a unique business model. According to Warren Buffet, one of the greatest investors of all time, “energy deregulation will be one of the ‘largest transfers of wealth’ in history.”
Deregulation– What should that word mean to you? Normally it tells us that if an industry is deregulated you the consumer will now have a choice that you did not have before. For example, years ago the telephone industry became deregulated. A result was that anyone could choose their own telephone service provider. As a result two people living next to each other may have their telephone service from providers that may be thousands of miles apart. Each one may have chosen his own provider because his bill is now less than he was paying before.
Deregulation of the telephone industry also opened the way for ordinary people, like you and I to sell telephone service to anyone. As a result, many ordinary people who had no way to make hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, millions of dollars, found themselves doing just that. They saw opportunity and took advantage of it.
Today, there is good news again! Currently, 28 States here in the United States have deregulated the Energy Industry. This means that in those States residents and businesses have the choice of deciding who they want as their energy supplier. Again, many have seen opportunity in this, and wealthy and poor alike are already taking advantage of this and selling energy to businesses and residential customers. I have heard of someone who in one year was making about $20,000 per month. The deregulated Energy Industry currently stands at $540 Billion Dollars. This is what is most attractive to those who join it. There is a share for almost everybody.
Sometimes opportunity is knocking or right outside our door. Sometimes it comes knocking more than once. This is a great opportunity! Do not let it pass by without an investigation! Energy deregulation may mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to YOU on a regular basis. It may mean millions of dollars to you and your family.
For others it may mean elimination of debt, college money for their childrens board and tuition, to yet others it means retirement and vacation money. Think! What does deregulation mean to you? Think! What can it mean? Think! What will it mean?
What it turns out to be depends on what YOU do with this information.
If this article appeals to you, begin your investigation at following website: http://www.rebk.info
Accused Of Using Forged Documents To Boost His Commission August 19, 2010|By Courant Staff Report The Department of Public Utility Control suspended the license of energy broker Raymond Sanzone Thursday after a request by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Consumer Counsel Mary Healy. Sanzone and his company, Turris Associates of Redding, allegedly defrauded an [...]
Texas Area Representatives Open to Utilities Reform
Published Monday, August 23, 2010 12:02 AM theeagle.com, Bryan-College Station, Texas By CASSIE SMITH cassie.smith@theeagle.com State Rep. Fred Brown said he likely will sponsor legislation this winter that would disassemble part of an 11-year-old law that allows cities to keep secret salary and bonus information at municipally-owned power companies. The issue made its way to [...]
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer – 2 hrs 2 mins ago WASHINGTON – The government is about to confirm what many people have felt for some time: The economy barely has a pulse. The Commerce Department on Friday will revise its estimate for economic growth in the April-to-June period and Wall [...]
