Why I didn't comment on EPE

If you were asking that - good question. 

When the sale of the publicly traded company made news I had an interest in what was going to happen.  I also had conversations with people who had many questions as to what would happen if the company sold.  I did a little digging and read what was available. I came to the conclusion that since I am not a stockholder that it was probably not much I could say about the situation.  After all, it's the board and the stockholders who control the company.  

Bottom line - the people with money in the game voted to sell the company.  What more can I say?  They bought in with the understanding that they would have the privilege of guiding that company's decisions.  Whether it was a good or bad decision is not relevant.  If you buy a TV and decide to use it as a boat anchor - what right or privilege do I have to tell you that you're wrong?  It's not my TV.  It wasn't my money that bought the TV.  Therefore I have no say over its future uses or possession. 

Yes, I heard the rumor that some major bank that had been fined before was involved.  That rumor was fed by an few news pieces that really confused me.  The gist of the argument is that the major bank was a silent/secret partner of the buyers.  However, it seemed rather clear that the reporters easily ascertained the major bank's involvement with the buyer group.  I tend to question how secret something is when it's pretty much written all over publicly available material put forth by the buying group.  It seemed none of the "investigative reporters" had to do much "investigating" to find out the obvious connection between the major bank and the buyer group.  Call me cynical, if you want, but I work for a living in a world where real dark money from mysterious benefactors exists.  Just because you don't like their involvement as an adviser to the buyer group doesn't mean the situation is secret or otherwise nefarious.  I really didn't find that to be an angle that held much of a story and it certainly wasn't a "gotcha" moment. 

The only thing you have to worry about is if the new owners have better lawyers than your lawyers when it comes time to fight rate increases.  When it does come time to state their case in front of the state officials, you're going to want to have a better team than they do.  Unfortunately for you, there's no budget to hire that kind of team.  Fortunately for them, they've got a big budget.  

Somewhere in this non-story is a bigger story about utility deregulation and the competition that comes with that.  I'm a fan of choice.  I think choice drives down prices while lifting quality and service.   The ins and outs of this issue are quite complicated given the way we originally established utility easements in  public right of ways etc.  The conversation is sure to be the audible equivalent of four Tylenol PMs chased by a fifth of vodka.  Imagine how awful it would look in blog form.  We're best just drinking the vodka by itself and proclaiming loudly to our friends "somebody ought to do something about that!"  

Comments

[Rico Suave]

Dear Juice,
If you actually lived in EP you would be concerned...
That said
Have a nice day.
Regards,
RS

[JerryK]

Lucky us. A hedge fund owns our power. But we gave up our power decades ago, anyway.

[Ratepayer]

I'm with DavidK. Not much you can do about it. Companies that are publicly held get bought and sold every day. Unless someone in this town had a 51% stake in EPE it was getting sold.

Months ago El Pasoans should have started a letter writing campaign to every single stockholder and begged them to vote no - might have had an impact, maybe. EPE had an RFP out soliciting buyers. They got 6 responses, the Board picked one and there you go. Your only hope is the City and the PUC vote no. All that will do is bring everyone back to the table to renegotiate some things and move on. Remember, the City hasn't seen a tax increase it doesn't like and has no problem selling bonds all day, every day - so why do they care what we pay for electric rates. As long as they get their millions each year for economic development from EPE they don't give a damn.

El Paso is isolated from any other electric grids. Therefore, it can't join the deregulated utilities like other cities have in Texas. We are once again an "island" in Texas and there is no competition.

[Large Rate Payer]

Ratepayer is exactly right. Our isolation from other grids kills the competition which means there will be no competition. The reason its being sold is so its owners(stockholders) can cash out and pay taxes on Trump's new tax laws. Cant blame them on that one. As an extremely large ratepayer i cant see this deal making rates better and I haven't seen cheaper rates from what others are paying in my industry from east Texas. In other words, I hope the current EPE stays as it is, but i can tell you one thing that's for certain. Rates will go up with the new owners. They will want their return quick or why even buy it. With them having a monopoly of our "Island in a Sea of Sand" I cannot see rates getting better. They won't.

[Duh]

If you really pay that much why not go off grid?

[Duh, Duh]

Duh, do you know what the large commercial rate is for El Paso ? Do you know what the rate is for East Texas ?

[Ratepayer]

Duh: how does a large commercial business go off the grid? Not sure how that works.

Saw the EPT report on yesterday's council meeting. The climate activists want the EPE sale killed because somehow that contributes to climate change. Whatever. Annello is some kind of weird asking council to let them speak. They had no solutions - except to purchase EPE. I can only imagine the city council managing an electric utility. OMG - they can't do street maintenance much less keep the lights on.

I don't think the majority of El Pasoans care either way who owns the electric company. So long as the lights are on and their wi-fi works.

[Large Rate Payer]

Ratepayer, Duh doesnt know shit. The climate people are probably from California and EPE had been selling them electricity from the Nuke plant for years from what i remember. Im assuming the closest power plant is in east Texas and it would probably have to rent the lines from EPE ? From the Gov ? not sure on that one. Say you go with a company from Houston and a hurricane hits and their plant goes down. does that affect us here ? Sounds like any other Electric company would basically do like other companies have done with ATT on the phones. I understand the sale for the stockholders, just not sure the sale would be good for the customers. price on kwh, demand kw, and kwh price breaks on usage, along with power factor penalty will comer into play comparing prices.

[Ratepayer]

Large Rate Payer: when Texas allowed competition for electric services El Paso was left out. Because of their bankruptcy and because there are no transmission lines from other utilities that come into southern NM and West Texas. You are correct - any other utility would have to buy the power from EPE to then re-sell to El Pasoans. I think EPE only has less than 1/4% in Palo Verde the AZ nuclear power plant. For whatever reason EPE has been playing nice with the city on its rate cases that last few years - backing off; giving money for economic development etc. Maybe they knew all along they were looking for a buyout so they humored the City and ratepayers by reducing their rate increase requests.

Ultimately - it's a publicly traded company and it has stockholders. They have rights too and one of them is to get the best deal to buy their stock. They voted for it. I don't think there is much anyone can do other than mess with the rates.

We all need to move on and get over it. Solar and wind power will never keep all the lights on 24/7. Climate alarmists need to understand how much carbon footprint solar and wind power use - it's not green and its not clean.

[duh]

Duh: how does a large commercial business go off the grid? Not sure how that works.

You generate your own power.

[Count DeMoni]

Duh, go out and buy yourself a diesel generator or a natural gas generator and see how much that cost you not to mention the city,fire, and every other asshole having regulations you must abide by to even get that done. Try to buy those generators that can produce 500 kw demand at all times during the summer and if you breakdown then what are you gonna do ? Have EPE as a backup ? Electric bills of 35k per month your gonna need a huge generator and backup. Solar cells on the fucking roof isnt gonna get it done. Count the money to build that first and then come back to me.