...A growing scientific consensus on the caus es and effects of climate change is driving a worldwide push for regulatory and legislative action. The global policy response could have profound effects on t he U.S. electric utility industry s economics, operations, and capital investment. Federal legislation and regulation focused on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide appear in evitable in the U.S. and constitute a meaningful business risk factor for the i ndustry among the largest producers of emissions linked to climate change. The ultimate costs to electric utilities of required environmental mitigation cannot be estimated currently, but climate- change policies eventually could carr y significant credit implications. Moody s has not lowered any utility company ratings due solely to the sizable capital expenditures needed to reduce emis sion levels. That could change. Utilities are expected to incur significant capital cost s over the next several...

Report Type: Special Comment
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