One of the stocks I own is American Electric Power, a large electric power utility. They had good first quarter earnings because of the cold winter. The same as last year. In fact, here is an excerpt from their 1st Quarter Earnings Conference Call.
Just as with first quarter 2014, the cold weather and generation performance contributed heavily to these positive results. First quarter 2014 was the coldest in 35 years; first quarter 2015 was the second coldest. But this isn’t the only story for the quarter. With weather year-on-year being about the same and earnings being higher than first quarter last year, the difference is the progress we have made in advancing our growth strategy.
First and second coldest in the last 35 years? How can that be? I thought the planet was warming. It’s like the gummint claiming the planet is warming (I remember NOAA saying last year that January of 2014 was the hottest January on record.) and then blaming the cold weather in the first quarters of 2014 and 2015 for low economic growth. As Insty sez, “Potemkin villages all the way down.”
From Ron in Ohio:
The first 5 years that we lived here in Ohio we had AEP. Although the rates were reasonable we probably had more outages in any given quarter than we’ve had in all of the 4 years at this house using an energy co-op. That problem probably stems from the fact that on the South and East sides of the lake it’s AEP powered with service poles throughout. Whereas, on the West and North sides of the lake The Energy Co-Op’s service is underground.
AEP has to be an investor’s dream while it is a consumer’s nightmare. Just go to, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Electric_Power to fully understand what I mean.
It must be their lobbying and vote buying efforts that have kept their Gavin Power Plant open in Cheshire, Ohio – On the Ohio River – in spite of it’s pollution record which is immense. Also, Obama has succeeded in closing down all of the coal fired power plants in Northern Ohio, mostly owned by First Energy, AEP’s competitor.
That last sentence fully explains why we had 2 monthly electric bills (Jan. & Feb. of this year) that hit a previously unheard of total of over $1,200.00 for heating and lighting our home for just those same 2 months mentioned by AEP in their first quarter statement.
Another recent link of interest about AEP is this, http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2013/07/11/aep-to-close-coal-fired-power-plant-near-beverly.html
AEP was in the process of building a nuke plant (can’t remember where) back when nuke power started getting a bad rap (unfairly – yet another thing Jane Fonda fucked up with her movie The China Syndrome) so they converted it to a coal fired plant. Bet they wish they had continued building the nuke plant.
I’ve been a shareholder since the mid 70’s. After the Enron debacle, they cut their dividend from 60 cents a share per quarter down to 38 cents a share per quarter and the stock dropped. I looked at that as an opportunity and bought more and am still buying today. The dividend is now up to 53 cents a share per quarter and I fully expect it to be back up to 60 cents again within the next four years, at least I hope so.
Ya see, Denny, this is part of the problem with those of us who want to have investments off which we can live when we get older. Bein’ filthy capitalist pigs, we can recognize that whether folks need A/C when it’s hot or heat when it’s cold, energy companies are gonna make us some money and we don’t have to join AARP so they can play Chicken Little with the politicians about how we can’t live on the pittance that SocSec pays us. It amazes me how so many folks talk a conservative game but end up relyin’ on dot-gov checks. I may have to collect SocSec some day, but if that’s all I have to live on, it won’t be becasue I didn’t try to provide for myself.
Bring on global warming/cooling and keep the checks comin’ in.
Global warming???
Well here in Erie we only got 110.5 inches of snow this winter instead of 120….must be Global warming , Yeah right!
Anyway 45 0f our snowiest winters including the top 20 have happened since 1960 with 64% of coldest individual days by date since 1950, global warming is a tough sell to many here….except for liberal democrats!
NPR had a talk on nuclear power as a way to combat “global warming.”
They spent the whole time whining about how dangerous nuclear power was.
Even if it is dangerous, isn’t that better than what they’re predicting?
Doesn’t it make sense to risk a possible disaster in order to avoid an inevitable catastrophe?
Everyone must comply with my edicts!
If you disagree then you’re guilty of a thought crime and must be punished!
Pure and simple, “global warming” is a power play.
They want the rest of us peons to live the simple life crowded together in cities while they live in their large mansions. Fuck ’em!