Electric and natural gas utilities that provide partial (or full) service to consumers are heavily regulated by government agencies, which set the price utilities charge customers for electric and gas service, the terms of that service, capital budgets and construction plans and so forth.
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Obviously, some industries generate more data than others like Telco, Retail, Oil and Gas and Utilities, for instance.
Once upon a time, gas and electric utilities could predictably operate with secure profit margins in a monopolistic environment, with steady revenue streams, and readily obtainable rate hikes to assure financial strength.
The need to build pipelines from gas fields to utilities and the requirement to build networks of charging stations on highways and in major cities will require a whole new massive infrastructure effort, which in turn will need the services of construction workers, engineers and other assorted building folk.
At the other end of the spectrum, two-thirds of the companies in food processing, government services, farming or agriculture, health care and education, and half of the companies in chemical processing or manufacturing, construction, the oil industry, power, gas and water utilities, and the legal industry are expected to have one major mission-critical failure owing to year-2000 problems.
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These rapid U.S. declines may be short-lived, as natural-gas prices rise and utilities increase coal consumption.
WSJ: Rise in U.S. Gas Production Fuels Unexpected Plunge in Emissions
Do you know how to turn off the utilities (gas, water and electricity) at the main switches?
It owns 5, 500 miles of gas pipelines and electric utilities in the Midwest.
William Clay Ford Jr. thinks that he can run a car company that produces gas-guzzling sport utilities vehicles and still be a committed environmentalist.
As gas prices fall electric utilities will start burning more of it and the commodity will find its way into new uses like truck fleets.
Sun Microsystems is betting big on utility computing, a new model that would make processing time available to businesses on demand, much in the same way they buy utilities like gas and electricity.
The broad outline of the rate hike was approved by state regulators in March to help bail out the state's two largest utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, who have been caught in a squeeze between escalating wholesale prices and the rates they can charge customers.
While cheap natural gas can be a threat to solar and wind energy development utilities might prefer to build more natural gas power plants that can deliver electricity around the clock natural gas also could play a complementary role.
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Cheap natural gas and environmental regulations are causing utilities to shut down coal-fired power plants.
Long term, environmentalists must win their ongoing battle as utilities substitute incremental natural gas as their boiler fuel.
Natural gas has been so cheap that utilities have turned to it to generate electricity, rather than contemplate building multibillion-dollar reactors.
Ms. IRIS PLACE (Resident, Indiana): You talk about rent, utilities, food, gas.
We have basic utilities, electricity, gas, water, fuel for our cars.
The unit is an ideal, lightweight solution for virtually any outdoor environment such as transportation, field services, utilities, oil, gas and other types of mobile applications.
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Lyman also questioned claims that about the cost advantages of the smaller reactors, noting that the boom in natural gas is squeezing even established nuclear utilities.
The collapse of Enron last fall, recent revelations of unsavory business practices among other energy traders and lower natural gas prices have made investing in utilities rocky terrain.
Gil Perez is president and chief executive officer of Arcadian Networks, a wireless broadband access provider for critical infrastructure organizations, such as electricity utilities, oil and gas companies as well as other market players.
Most of the projects Immelt has approved are intended to help customers avoid painful regulation such as the CO2 caps in Europe or the lawsuit launched last year by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and eight other states against five U.S. utilities over their greenhouse gas emissions.
This spending is discretionary, the authors note, because utilities can just switch to gas instead.
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Duke Energy Ohio applied for electricity and natural gas distribution rate hikes with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in July 2012.
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For some time now utilities, faced with falling gas prices and the prospect of stricter environmental regulation, have been favouring gas over coal anyway.
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Other industries, like utilities, and oil and gas, have older workers with long tenures -- therefore, they're likely to exit the work force sooner.
The stock has essentially been falling since late July last year, hit by production cutbacks as warmer weather and regulation hurt prices, along with lower demand for utilities switching to cheaper natural gas.
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Houston-based Powell Industries (nasdaq: POWL - news - people ) makes switchboards and other kinds of electric-power distribution equipment for businesses including commuter rail systems, utilities, and oil and gas producers.
If natural gas is to win by default and utilities are to get rid of all their coal and nuclear, future utility chiefs will have some sleepless nights, adds Tom Farrell, chief executive of Dominion Resources.
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