{"id":40098,"date":"2018-11-03T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T15:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40098"},"modified":"2018-11-03T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T15:44:11","slug":"gas-companies-face-californian-wipe-out-say-sp-moodys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40098","title":{"rendered":"Gas companies face Californian wipe-out, say S&P, Moody\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gas companies face Californian wipe-out, say S&P, Moody\u2019s<\/a><\/h3>\n

Ratings agencies say the state\u2019s bid to go 100% renewable poses a \u2018significant threat\u2019 to gas generators\u2019 credit stability<\/p>\n

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Newport Wedge, California (Photo: Tom Walker\/Flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gas companies in California face credit downgrades, ratings agencies say, after the state pledged to get all of its power from renewable sources by 2045.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 10 September, California governor Jerry Brown signed a bill<\/a> which would require 100% of the state electricity\u2019s to come from carbon-free sources.<\/p>\n

That would have no immediate effect on most gas generators, according to a report<\/a> by Standard & Poor\u2019s (S&P) analyst Michael Ferguson this month. However, he said: \u201cWe believe that over the long term, with the growth of renewable energy, these utilities face a significant threat to their market position, finances, and credit stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a fortnight of the California bill, S&P had revised its ratings outlook for Middle River Power<\/a>, an equity firm backing a natural gas-fired plant providing electricity for 500,000 people in San Berdinado<\/a>, from stable to negative. On top of increased competition from renewables, the credit agency cited \u201ca more challenging (\u2026) regulatory environment for natural gas-fired assets over the long term because of aggressive renewable energy goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gas plant is going to have to be refinanced,\u201d Ferguson told Climate Home News, \u201cand it\u2019s going to get more and more difficult to refinance over the long-term because they are going to be facing increasing renewable penetration\u2026 Longer-term the prospects for [all] gas generation are going to be weaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

S&P\u2019s report largely echoes an assessment by its rival Moody\u2019s, released in September. According to Moody\u2019s, the state\u2019s new legislation was \u201ccredit negative\u201d for companies Calpine Corporation, NRG Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gas companies face Californian wipe-out, say S&P, Moody\u2019s Ratings agencies say the state\u2019s bid to go 100% renewable poses a \u2018significant threat\u2019 to gas generators\u2019 credit stability Newport Wedge, California (Photo: Tom Walker\/Flickr) Gas companies in California face credit downgrades, ratings agencies say, after the state pledged to get all of its power from renewable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[101,22759,15110,3973,541,22760,12580,674,696],"class_list":["post-40098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-california","tag-climate-home-news","tag-gas-industry","tag-jerry-brown","tag-moodys","tag-natalie-sauer","tag-ratings-agencies","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40099,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40098\/revisions\/40099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}