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ComEd pleads not guilty

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* Megan Crepeau and Jason Meisner at the Tribune…

ComEd pleaded not guilty to an expansive federal bribery charge Wednesday during what will likely be its final court hearing until 2023.

The plea was a formality, since the company has entered an agreement to defer prosecution. ComEd will pay a record $200 million fine and cooperate in the ongoing probe of its lobbying practices in Springfield in exchange for the charges being dropped at the end of the agreement period.

* More…

ComEd attorney Reid Schar entered the plea during a telephonic arraignment this morning for the company. Though attorneys earlier said a plea would not be necessary, U.S. District Judge John Kness insisted on it.

— Jon Seidel (@SeidelContent) August 5, 2020

…Adding… Steve Daniels at Crain’s…

Exelon CEO Chris Crane said [yesterday] the company will decide early next year whether to close nuclear plants in Illinois, even as he acknowledged the company’s standing in Springfield had been damaged by the revelations of corruption at its Commonwealth Edison unit.

Crane in his comments during the quarterly earnings call with analysts attempted to walk a line between contrition for ComEd’s recent acknowledgements of paying off close associates and lieutenants of House Speaker Michael Madigan and the pressure tactics he’s used before to win state support for subsidies.

“We will not run plants and lose free cash flow or earnings on assets that are not supporting themselves,” Crane said.

“It’s reality,” he added. “We’ve shut two units down in recent years if we could not see a path to sustainability of those assets in the portfolio. Not the greatest decisions we’ve ever had to make, and we understand the impact of that on communities we serve and the environmental goals and economic impact of the states. But maintaining an investment grade (rating) that can support the remaining facilities is our main focus.”

Good luck with that, dude.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 12:58 pm

Comments

We should take them over the way Nebraska took over it’s utilities.
Nuclear power plants aren’t profitable. They’ve been unprofitable for decades. Look, one of the reasons we gave ComEd the rate hikes in the first place was to keep them employing people. Another reason we want nuclear power plants around is they don’t contribute to carbon in the atmosphere. We don’t want to just rely on windmills and solar. We need a variety of sources in the mix. So ComEd is unhappy with their plants, I guess they’ll be glad to unload them.

Comment by Muddy trail Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 1:28 pm
This is very bad. So Com Ed fixes the market with pay offs(note Com Ed admits to payoffs to Madigan for those saying he has done no wrong) now they will close plants causing IL residents to pay more for power.

Honestly, I don’t care where your alliances are if your legislator won’t demand his resignation and commit to not voting for him for Speaker, you prove democrats in this state will always vote for a democrat. This going to kill residents in Com Ed territory.

Comment by the Patriot Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 1:33 pm
“We should take them over the way Nebraska took over it’s utilities”

We did an awful deal on parking meters and can’t find the funds to replace water pipes without lead. Financial issues aside you really think politicians in this city are going to be able to keep up with the needs and changes to energy? These are continuous evolving technologies. The upkeep and need to have 10, 20, 30 year plan are not something I would leave to chance in city hall or state government.

Maybe form a trust/non-profit entity but keep it removed from the politicians as much as possible.

Comment by 1st Ward Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 1:56 pm
In a nutshell, ComEd/Exelon is not making as much money as it would like so it going to again cry “woe is me” and tell legislators they need to squeeze more money from ratepayers. How much did Chris Crane get paid last year?

Comment by Nobody Sent Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 1:59 pm
Muddy T~~ ComEd does not own nuclear power plants so they cant sell them. Exelon CEO did not say they were selling them,but they are considering closing them that is a distinct difference. There will be a bigfinacial impact to the economy of Illinois and several local economies as well.

Comment by NorthsideNoMore Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:03 pm
they have a very good attorney.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:10 pm
Nebraska did it and so far they are having success. Maybe pick their brains, hire some of their people. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/red-state-red-power-nebraskas-publiclyowned-electricity-system/

== These are continuous evolving technologies. The upkeep and need to have 10, 20, 30 year plan are not something I would leave to chance in city hall or state government. ==

The day to day operations of the nuclear power plants wouldn’t be done by politicians, there are people who do that for a living.

==Exelon CEO did not say they were selling them,but they are considering closing them that is a distinct difference.==

Exelon doesn’t want them. They don’t make profit. Has anyone asked them?

Comment by Muddy trail Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:22 pm
===But maintaining an investment grade (rating) that can support the remaining facilities is our main focus.===

I think it is very important to acknowledge that the driving force behind Exelon isn’t to actually deliver the product that they provide to their customers, it is literally to produce a product for investors in the company.

It’s also pretty telling that once their racket got busted, they’re back at the same racket.

Comment by Candy Dogood Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:25 pm
“The day to day operations of the nuclear power plants wouldn’t be done by politicians, there are people who do that for a living.”

This is controlled by Exelon not ComEd who owns and maintains the transmission assets. The financial feasibility would be next to impossible given were state and local finances are. The state purchasing Illinois Exelon power generating assets would be tens of billions plus additional billions to purchase power and continue investing in new technology/sources.
Every municipality in ComEd’s service territory would have to do a deal to purchase ComEd’s transmission assets. This is tens of billions more in aggregate. Then all of the municipalities have to set-up a pact since transmission assets would cross muni and county lines. Then you are making a deal with the state/power producer. In today’s age something of this scale would take a decade plus to do.

Comment by 1st Ward Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:43 pm
Amalia — Reid Schar is a VERY good attorney - but Com Ed also benefits from an environment at DOJ that is reluctant to place heavy criminal penalties on corporations.

Comment by Keyrock Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 2:51 pm
===The state purchasing Illinois Exelon power generating assets would be tens of billions===

The plants are valued at a tiny fraction of that for property tax assessment. Perhaps the assessor needs to have a second look.

Comment by Jibba Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 3:11 pm
“The plants are valued at a tiny fraction of that for property tax assessment. Perhaps the assessor needs to have a second look.”

They own more than just two nuke plants (renewable and fossil assets as well). The assessments are low due to depreciation and their ownership is not 100% in these plants. the useful life on the Illinois plants ends in 2027 plus there are significant NOL’s which help lower the assessment bills as well.

Excelon Generation Company LLC owns $36Bn in generating resources of which 38% of the capacity is in the midwest. Some of the assets are contracted as well.

Comment by 1st Ward Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 3:36 pm
I’m not for the State taking over the nuclear plants, but if it wanted them, it could probably get them for free if they are shutdown. Maintaining security, disposing of nuclear waste, etc. are all very expensive. Giving them away would probably be a big win for the owner.

Comment by Pelonski Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 3:59 pm
I’m not a commercial property tax expert, but most property taxes are set based on the fair market value of the property. I’m not sure why depreciation or Net Operating Losses (NOLs) would impact that.

Comment by Pelonski Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 4:05 pm
===Giving them away would probably be a big win for the owner.===

Agreed, especially if you include liability for closure and spent fuel. That is how they bought Clinton from IP for $40 million, when it cost $4.5B to build. And why we need to make sure Illinois is not on the hook for closure should Exelon try to avoid their liability.

BTW, 1st Ward, I interpret the earlier post as advocating the purchase of the nuke plants alone, which is why 10s of billions you quoted is out of step for the assets as shown by the purchase of Clinton and the continuous requests to decrease assessments at Byron and elsewhere. Or if you are correct about the value of the nuke plants, then the assessments are way low. Your choice.

Comment by Jibba Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 4:29 pm
@Pelonski you are correct the NOL’s would be applied to state and federal taxes not property. See below articles on their property tax agreements.

https://www.morrisherald-news.com/2019/06/10/coal-city-approves-tax-agreement-with-exelon/a3gb9gq/

https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/drone/8-in-the-air/rural-illinois-power-plant-has-one-of-the-highest-tax-bills-in-america/526-6a7b7967-c6e3-421b-80e2-e426a96bb75f#:~:text=%E2%80%9CExelon%20has%20been%20litigating%20the,Exelon%20spokesman%20Paul%20Dempsey%20said.&text=The%20Byron%20nuclear%20plant%20pays%20property%20taxes%20to%2011%20separate%20taxing%20bodies.,-Other%20power%20plant

Comment by 1st Ward Wednesday, Aug 5, 20 @ 5:14 pm
“The financial feasibility would be next to impossible given were state and local finances are.”
It always makes me laugh when people compare costs to zero. What about the negative costs of closing the nuclear power plants? The money lost? Each one employs over a thousand workers, who is going to help them? Closing one has costs too. Nobody wants to live in a new town home on the former site of a nuclear power plant. It’s not like you can put a chain link fence around the site with a no trespassing sign (pretty please) and call it a day. Somebody should compare the numbers of the cost of closing one to the cost of running one.

Comment by Mr. Green Genes Thursday, Aug 6, 20 @ 7:09 am