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Pacific Gas & Electric Co. would have to pay nearly $100 million under a regulatory judge’s proposed punishment issued Friday. Citing the “flagrant and pervasive nature” of the five years of illegal e-mail contacts, administrative law judge Robert Mason concluded that a previously agreed to $1 million fine against the company was “too low.” Mason upped that to $12 million in fines. That's combined with $73.5 million in customer rate cuts that PG&E has agreed to provide. The $97.5 million penalty will be the most severe imposed on any state regulated utility for so-called ex parte communications – the official...

One of the country's largest coal utilities will begin closing power plants next month in four states, as strict federal environmental regulations begin to kick in. The company, American Electric Power, made the announcement in a notice advising employees at the electricity stations that it plans to close six power plants in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, according to news reports. The company said it plans to shutter as much as 6,000 megawatts of power plant capacity in seven states by the start of 2016. The closures were planned as far back as 2011 to comply with new pollution...

 John S. Fitzpatrick, NorthWestern Energy NorthWestern Energy is a publicly regulated utility that supplies electricity, natural gas, and has coal and telecommunications operations across a broad swath of Northern states.  The company lobbyist, John S. Fitzpatrick, recently testified against a proposed bill to allow a gun reform referendum to be voted on in Montana.  Referendum that enhance the protections of the right to keep and bear arms have proven popular in a number of states.  The referendum would allow people to sue government entities that infringe on their rights to keep and bear arms under the Montana Constitution.  One...

Dear Friends, Obamacare, the VA scandal, the IRS scandal--these are just a few examples of what happens when we give government huge power without oversight. It's about to happen again--the Obama Administration is fighting for a government takeover of the Internet and the Federal Communications Commission is going to vote on it February 26th. That's why I am writing you today--I need your help to stop this.President Obama came out a few weeks ago urging the FCC to vote to regulate the Internet the same way that it regulates public utilities under Title II. What this means is that, for...

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler appears poised to propose new rules that would classify Internet service providers as public utilities in a move designed to ensure everyone has the same access to free content online. […] The remarks suggest that the Federal Communications Commission is falling in line with President Barack Obama, who announced in November that he favors governing Internet service providers like telephone companies to preserve a “free and open” Internet. …

President Barack Obama wants to reclassify the internet as a utility, he said in a new statement released by the White House on Monday. This would allow the Federal Communications Committee to enforce heavier restrictions on it and protect net neutrality. "The time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do," Obama said in his statement. Obama is officially supporting net neutrality, writing that internet service providers should not be allowed to control, or "pick winners and losers"...

Several liberal lawmakers want to apply utility-style regulations to Internet service providers. Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, collected signatures for a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet like the telephone system. Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Al Franken of Minnesota, as well as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have signed on, aides confirmed. The lawmakers have planned a Tuesday morning press conference with Internet advocacy groups. In the letter, the senators argue that stronger authority is necessary to enact strong net-neutrality rules to prevent broadband providers such as Comcast from manipulating...

BE afraid. That’s the takeaway for both investors and taxpayers in the 307-page Senate report detailing last year’s $6.2 billion trading fiasco at JPMorgan Chase. The financial system, thanks to dissembling traders and bumbling regulators, is at greater risk than you know. After bailing out the nation’s banking system in 2008, taxpayers and investors have been assured that such a crisis will not happen again. The Dodd-Frank legislation was supposed to make our system safe from the kinds of reckless banking activities... --SNIP-- But the true value in this Senate investigation is its spotlight on the ability of bank executives...

OSCEOLA -- It's a new scam, said the Better Business Bureau. President Barack Obama is not offering to pay your utility bills. In the scam, which recently hit Michiana, consumers are being contacted in person and through fliers, social media and text messages with claims that Obama is providing credits or applying payments to utility bills. People are then asked to provide their Social Security and bank routing numbers in order to receive the money. In exchange, they are given a phony bank routing number that they are told will pay their utility bills

According to a story on PJM by Charlie Martin, in 2004 Comcast and some of the other big providers started looking at what data was being sent, and decided to start throttling down how much data of certain types — most notably streaming audio and video — people could receive. This tended to irritate people who watch their favorite shows on Hulu or movies on Netflix (I happen to be one of the people who prefers his shows this way). Thus, the push for net neutrality began. On its face, the idea of net neutrality seems like a good one:...

Jacksonville-based rail carrier CSX Transportation has poured millions into lobbying against a bill that would end railroad industry antitrust exemptions, and another - seen as a watered-down compromise - that would bolster the federal agency that regulates the industry. The fight against tougher regulations comes at a time when Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. is challenging what it calls an unfair increase in CSX freight rates affecting shipments of coal to its Palatka generating station. The rate increases upped the companies' costs by $80 million in 2009, a Seminole spokesman said. Overall, the company had $1.2 billion in operating expenses...

What is it? Where is it? What's it do? ZoneAlarm Firewall

AKRON, Ohio -- FirstEnergy Corp. plans to provide nearly 4 million low-energy light bulbs to its residential electricity customers in Ohio. Akron-based FirstEnergy said Monday that distribution will begin in mid-October. Two compact fluorescent light bulbs will be mailed or hand-delivered to residential customers of Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and Toledo Edison. The cost of the program will be underwritten by customers, who FirstEnergy said can recover three times the cost through projected energy savings. Reports indicate that there will be a 60 cent charge on customers' bills for the next three years. The program approved by state...

(Fortune Magazine) -- David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy and a father of five, was standing in a stubby cornfield in Bucks County, Pa., one windy evening last October when his BlackBerry began to stir. He checked his in-box, but he didn't respond, not right away. It was Sunday night, and he was on an outing with his family, waiting in line for a Halloween hayride. Nor did he respond an hour later on his way to the Amtrak station to catch a train to Washington, D.C. How could he, when he drives a Mini Cooper with a stick shift?...

State regulators on Wednesday proposed emergency rules to keep more people from losing electricity or heat in the winter and to ban the use of power-limiting devices, weeks after a 93-year-old man froze to death in a home with a similar gadget.

Alabama Power Co. will give customers a way to save $20 annually by allowing the electric utility to cut off their home air conditioners for brief periods on the hottest weekdays of summer.

Like Pasadena, Los Angeles is Exposed to "Utility Math" Jack Humphreville Neighborhood Council - DWP Oversight Committee Like Pasadena, we in Los Angeles are being exposed to utility math. DWP has proposed to raise our power rates on January 1 and July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009. They have been characterized as "fairly modest" and only "$1.75 a month" and 8.5% over 3 (years) the rate hikes and they are vital to improve our power reliability. Unfortunately, when you take in the "pass thrus," our rates are going up 23%. That is not fairly modest, that is RATE SHOCK!...

Why global warming is like a movie extravaganza in California Or: Utility Tax is for those who did NOT flunk math The Pasadena Pundit - October 12, 2007 Israel Gallegos is attributed with the quote that "the lottery is a tax on people who flunked math." Peg Bracken, author of the "I Hate to Cook Book" (1960) once made a similar observation when she wrote: "Why does a tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?" Taxpayers who catch on to the implications of recent California appellate court rulings about the unconstitutionality...

Perhaps his $24 billion electric bill will teach Richard Redden not to leave the heat running. Thanks to a printing error, Redden and more than 1,300 Weatherford utility customers this week received billion-dollar electric bills marked as late notices. Irving-bases DataProse, which prints customer bills for Weatherford Electric, said the company was embarrassed by the error. "Obviously, this is not something we are pleased about," said Curtis Nelson, DataProse vice president and general manager. Weatherford Electric spokeswoman Pam Pearson said customers can expect their correct bills later this month. She said the company's records were correct and showed the right...

Anyone who ever tried to dig a hole in January knows how hard the cold earth can be. However, underneath that top layer of soil, the earth is a warmer, more constant temperature no matter what the calendar says. Home builders are starting to take advantage of that by introducing geothermal heat pumps into homes new and old. The concept is simple and dates to the 1800s, but not until the 1940s did any buildings start delivering on its promise.