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4/30/2008
Schumer raps PSC for handling of RG&E takeover
| Sen. Charles Schumer today called the state Public Service Commission “stone headed” because of conditions it is trying to impose on Iberdrola SA, the big Spanish utility that’s seeking to buy the parent of Rochester Gas and Electric. Iberdrola agreed 10 months ago to purchase Energy East Corp. for $4.5 billion, and has received go-aheads from other states where Energy East does business. But negotiations between Iberdrola and New York regulators have been moving slowly for several months. Iberdrola’s chairman, Ignacio Sanchez Galan, suggested recently that his company might abandon the deal because of the PSC’s demands. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’s particularly irked by two conditions the PSC staff has set: that Iberdrola sell off the wind energy assets it already owns in New York; and that it sell RG&E’s Russell Station power plant in Greece. Noting that Iberdrola is the world’s largest wind power utility, Schumer said it makes no sense to discourage the company from pursuing that form of energy in New York. And the prospect of a new owner of Russell Station “raises many questions, including what impact it could have on customer electric rates,” Schumer said in a conference call with journalists. The PSC isn’t expected to make a decision on the Iberdrola-Energy East deal until sometime this summer, and Iberdrola officials recently said they don’t expect to make their own decision about whether to proceed until at least June. If the deal goes through, Energy East stockholders would receive $28 a share for their holdings. |
