Has RG&E been bought?
According to an article in today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and confirmed by many other business news sources, RG&E is lined up to be purchased by Iberdrola, a Spanish energy conglomerate:
The parent company of Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. has agreed to be acquired by a Spanish company that is a worldwide leader in wind energy.
Under terms of the deal announced Monday, Iberdrola SA, which is based in Bilbao, Spain, will pay $4.5 billion in cash to acquire Energy East Corp., which is headquartered in Portland, Maine, and owns RG&E and NYSEG, another major New York supplier of electricity and gas.
The acquisition, subject to approval by Energy East stockholders and state and federal regulators, is expected to become final in 2008.
The following links help fill out the story.
- PDF version of complete Democrat & Chronicle article.
- PDF followup to D&C article above, published on 6/27.
- News story in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.
- Followup story about PSC reaction in the Press & Sun-Bulletin.
- Complete account of acquisition plans posted on Bloomberg.com.
- Revealing report about financing in the International Business Times.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out with the regulatory agencies and financiers. There's a lot of movement in the energy field, especially in the volatile wind energy industry, much of which seems to have been in quiet preparation for quite a while. The antitrust implications of what appears to be developing are staggering, however, and we may witness the whole house of cards come tumbling down, Enron-style, if we are just patient.
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IMO, the Iberdrola purchase of Maine-based Energy East (including Energy East's NY State subsidiaries RG&E and NYSEG) is obvious proof that the NY State Public Service Commission (PSC) is bought off (massive corruption).
Acciona (a "construction" company in Spain owns Iberdrola (Spain's windpower company) which owns Scottish Power (Scotland's windpower company). Iberdrola also owns a number of subsidiary windpower companies. The Iberdrola owned consortium and all of its affiliates have been previously granted PSC approval for already operational major windpower generating projects in New York State.
The PSC repeatedly has made rulings that drastically downplay the affiliation between Iberdrola and Iberdrola's subsidiaries to pretend that Anti-Trust laws are not being violated and to extend more tax credits, in a monetary amount that one company (Iberdrola) unto itself should not and could not receive.
Additionally, the PSC within the past 2 years allowed Iberdrola to lie to the PSC. Iberdrola told the PSC that Iberdrola owned no companies in any states neighboring NY State which transmit or sell windpower to NY State, when in fact Iberdrola at that time already owned Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) of Wayne, Pennsylvania (PA neighbors NY).
And CEI (owned by Iberdrola) was and is the only transmitter of windpower to Energy East's RG&E (Rochester Gas & Electric) and NYSEG.
And CEI (owned by Iberdrola) transmits windpower to Consolidated Edison in downstate NY, further monopolizing Iberdola's percentage of NY State's windpower energy assets.
Above, in NY State, we see Iberdrola controlling a large amount of windpower PRODUCTION, a large amount of windpower TRANSMISSION (supplied by Iberdrola owned CEI), a large amount of windpower RECIPIENTS (received by Iberdrola owned RG&E and NYSEG), and Iberdrola limiting RG&E's and NYSEG's CONSUMERS to buying only Iberdrola-owned windpower.
IMO, it would be wise ASAP to bypass the PSC and take matters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
IMO, the PSC does not want to lose its authority to FERC because the PSC is on-the-take.
The PSC is corruptly selling out NY State, hook, line and sinker.
This is an energy scam of Enron proportions.
This is State-sponsoring (NY State PSC sponsoring) of major Anti-Trust violations by Iberdrola.
I wonder if Maine headquartered Energy East will be used to buy out UPC's Mars Hill, Maine wind farm in order to further expand Iberdrola's windpower acquisitions in the U.S. under subsidiary names.
I wonder if the NY southern tier projects will feed their windpower into the CEI windpower transmission system owned by Iberdrola.
I have complained to the Attorney General’s office for quite some time about the misleading information included in our electric bills. If it is not illegal, it should be. Now RG&E and NYSEG purchased by Iberdrola? We are selling out Western NY to foreign companies that will make huge profits because of the ignorance of the masses. Call your state and federal representatives, Call the attorney general. Go to local meetings like the one mentioned below. It is not just Prattsburgh and Cohocton. If you live in the city and you expect to take a weekend ride to the surrounding countryside and enjoy its natural beauty, you can forget about it, unless you take action and encourage everyone you know to do the same. The truth about wind needs to be heard often and loudly.
Apparently NY and Federal formal approval has not yet been obtained for finalization of Iberdrola's purchase of Energy East.
Iberdrola's scheme is simple.
Own the companies (Energy East, RG&E, NYSEG, etc.) that buy windpower at the end point for regional consumption. Then Iberdrola has those end point companies greatly increase the buying, marketing, and regional distribution of windpower to consumers - that windpower being generated/produced by Iberdrola (and its subsidiaries) owned windfarms.
When owned by Iberdrola, Energy East, RG&E, NYSEG, etc., will be directed by Iberdrola to purchase a lot more windpower from Iberdrola (and its subsidiaries) owned windfarms, resulting in increased demand for Iberdrola-generated windpower, resulting in the construction of more windpower turbines and windfarms built and owned by Iberdrola (and its subsidiaries) which, in turn will result in Iberdrola obtaining more "freebie" tax credits (state and federal massive giveaway monies for windpower - which is currently still a technologically very inefficient and very unprofitable source of electricity which cannot economically exist without massive "freebies").
The more wind turbines and windfarms Iberdrola builds resulting from this scheme, the greater the windpower load carried and transmitted by the transmitter/supplier company CEI (owned by Iberdrola), resulting in vastly increased "freebie" windpower tax credits for Iberdrola owned CEI.
In this scheme, Iberdrola-owned Energy East, RG&E, NYSEG, etc. also reap a windfall of "freebie" tax credits (for their owner Iberdrola) resulting from their anticipated increasing purchases of windpower, which is Iberdrola's objective: "freebie" windpower tax credits across the board to all Iberdrola-owned companies.
Additionally, the scheme allows Iberdrola (and its subsidiaries) to control windpower pricing and demand by controlling output sales, by controlling transmission/supply prices, and by controlling end point buying/pricing by ensuring that Iberdrola's produced and supplied windpower is the only windpower available at the end point (as is currently the case with end point's Energy East, RG&E, NYSEG).
Availability (of windpower-produced electricity) is limited in regional consumer markets (such as in Rochester, NY) solely (or mostly) to only Iberdrola-generated windpower, resulting in monopolization windpower price fixing and price gouging by Iberdrola and the subsidiaries Iberdrola owns.
The wholesale sell off to foreign corporations of our nation's power generation grid (nuclear power generation being the only exception), as aided by the quick bucks attitude of some of our local governments, and by our State and Federal governments, poses a national security concern. Our nation is in deep trouble being that it is on the verge of no longer controlling nor owning its very own electric power supply.