FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones took time on Friday's earnings call to claim that a local news headline inaccurately represented his views on re-regulation, but then proceeded to undercut his outrage by advocating for state-set compensation for merchant generating plants, and extolling the resource adequacy enjoyed by regulated states (if that's not pining for re-regulation, we don't know what is):

Jones during the earnings call said as follows:

"Let’s first talk a little bit about how a newspaper is run. We went and met with the editorial board and we had what I thought was a good conversation over an hour and 50 minutes. But then it gets boiled down into an article. Once that article is written, then there's a headline writer who goes and writes a headline to try to draw attention to that article. The headline that was written for that article was completely inaccurate as to anything we discussed during that interview.

"In the interview, I was asked a specific question of, are we in any way working to get the legislature of the state to consider re-regulating, and my answer was no.

"In the context of the discussion about the PPAs, here's my view: we are talking about trying to find ways to preserve major generating assets that have plenty of useful life left in them and keep them from closing prematurely.

"Exelon is looking at doing that in Illinois and New York. Ohio utilities are looking at doing it in Ohio. You don't ever hear any conversation about needing to do that in states that are regulated. Regulated states have plenty of generation. They have integrated resource plans and if they need more generation, they either buy or build it, so they are assured they have adequate generation to serve their customers. [emphasis added]

"So these PPAs, I see as a bridge to keep these plants alive, long enough to allow whatever happens. If our state wants to look at that issue over time, great, but it's not going to happen fast enough for these two plants. If we are ultimately able to make significant corrections in the market to make sure they provide for the long-term security of baseload generating facilities, great, but I don’t think we have time to wait on that either."

Jones was not specific as to which headline was inaccurate, though the first story concerning Jones' recent editorial board meetings was from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Plain Dealer's current headline for that story, which has no indication of being changed since publication, is "FirstEnergy wants Ohio to end deregulation, return to state-controlled rates."

We fail to see how this inaccurately portrays Jones' position, either with respect to the PPA or generally.

Jones couches his indignation at the incorrect notion that his company is lobbying the legislature for re-regulation -- which is not implied by the Plain Dealer headline.

Rather, the Plain Dealer only headlined that Jones "wants" re-regulation, which is a fair representation given separate quotes given by Jones to the Plain Dealer and to other papers.

The Akron Beacon Journal quotes Jones as stating, “We are not doing anything active to push or cajole [for re-regulation],” but that, “I think at some point in time, regulation worked for 85 years and in time, I think it’s probably a better way to do this business.”

The Columbus Dispatch quotes Jones as stating of re-regulation, “It’s worthy of discussion,” with Jones continuing. “I think at some point and time, that’s where our industry needs to land.”

“I believe (the old system of) regulation worked well for our industry for a long time, and I believe it’s working well in the states that stayed regulated,” Jones told the Columbus Dispatch

Tags:
Ohio   Deregulation   Re-regulation   FirstEnergy  

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