A [wrong] is being perpetrated on the citizens
of Indianapolis by our city-county councilors, Mayor Greg Ballard and the board of Citizens Energy, by negotiating a “sale”
of the water company to Citizens.
The $1.9 billion deal still needs the OK of the City-County Council and state regulators.
American Structurepoint has been tapped by the Department of Public Works as program manager for the city’s “RebuildIndy”
infrastructure-improvement initiative.
Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis support sale of water, sewer utilities.
An economic development squad is heading to Dallas to woo wind-energy firms. Indiana ranked second in the nation last year
in
adding wind-generating capacity.
Veolia Water is contesting three "serious" safety penalties involving a gas line strike. IOSHA alleges utility failed
to instruct employees and properly determine location of lines.
Indianapolis Power & Light tilted at wind farm developer by terminating its contract. Now a new agreement avoids the potential
$190 million in damages enXco sought against the local utility.
Duke Energy has signed the agreement to formalize the $204 million in economic stimulus funds it will receive from the federal
government, the power provider said Thursday.
Duke Energy has dramatically scaled back its proposed “smart” electric grid rollout, five months after regulators rejected
an initial, $445 million plan.
Gem Utilities Inc. and Gem Water Inc. have offered their sewer and water operations to the town of Cumberland for $6 million.
Recent events in the Gulf of Mexico have placed considerable focus
on the everyday contributions the men and women in the oil and natural gas industry make to help fuel and power our way of
life.
City would use $425 million expected from selling the city’s water and sewer utilities to Citizens Energy Group to upgrade
city streets, sidewalks and bridges.
The waterworks board’s plan to hire outside consultants to study the proposed sale of Indianapolis Water could delay the deal.
Not only are utilities grappling with how to pull carbon from their coal-fired emissions, but they also crave certainty about
where to put the carbon. With minimal information available about Indiana’s deep subsurface , much remains to be done to determine
where and at what scale the practice could be deployed here.
So-called carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, is seen by some in the utility business as a potential salvation for coal.
But utilities may face a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you don’t scenario.
Indiana saw a 700-percent increase in total wind-generated power in 2009, an increase second only to Utah, according to the
U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report.
Citizens Energy should have completed the majority of its due diligence of the city’s water and sewer utilities, which
it plans to acquire, by the end of this month.
Part of the overall utility problem is that lack of government oversight and public policy vision has made Indianapolis one
of the highest-polluting and just plain ugliest cities in the Midwest.
So far, in discussing his plan to sell the city’s water and sewer utilities, Mayor Greg Ballard has
emphasized the impact on utility rates, the $1.5 billion in city debt Citizens would assume, and the chance
to improve streets and sidewalks. But Ballard also has another key objective: business attraction and
expansion.
A $1.9 billion proposal to sell the city’s water and sewer utilities splashed into public view last month, but some
financial details settling at the bottom line could make the deal harder to swallow.
