The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Yes. That's perfect. Thank you, Rebecca, that's a very good overview.
Really kind of 3 main questions. We'll start with Energy Resources. No surprise to you, the big questions everyone has really are how far can this
go? How do your returns stay up? And given what might happen to the election, how far things go? And before I turn it over, the kind of nuances
where people ask us is smaller players are accepting much lower IRRs. Granted, they're doing shorter-term projects not creditworthy. The other
one is why would utilities continue to do PPAs of tax rates expire because they'd rather grow rate base. And then the corollary to that is how much
room is there to go with the large corporates, the Googles, the Apples, the Amazons of the world? So anything that you could take there would
be wonderful.
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. No, that's great. I appreciate that answer.
Moving to the utility, lots of focus on the rate case in combining, obviously, Gulf with FPL. I think one of the questions we get most often is what
would be the source of additional reserve amortization? And do you expect that construct to apply to go upon the combination? Go ahead.
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. Yes, very helpful. And the last one, we'll go quickly because I know we lost some time on the front end. M&A, I know you're always asked,
some numbers came out about where your bid was for JEA. Obviously, Santee Cooper's out there. Rather than getting the nuts and bolts, I mean,
if you could remind us the terms of what you're looking for. But obviously, given the numbers that were floated around for JEA I think post Santee
Cooper, is there kind of a minimum size it wouldn't go below? It's pretty clear you could go very large, so let's look at the other end. Is there a size
that's almost too small to look at?
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. That's wonderful. And then finally, just one macro. And I know you touched on what Biden's energy plan might be. But when you look at the
election and looks going out, I know you tend to stay fairly agnostic. A lot of state-level mandates help you both at near and obviously, state and
local politics help very much for Florida and FP&L. But are there -- when you think about things like tax policy, not even just renewable credits, but
with corporate tax rates or anything else, it removes headroom at the utility. Obviously, for the nonregulated businesses, tax rates can matter.
Although with tax rates right now, it's not as big an issue. Are there just any particular real sticking issues you're looking at with regard to policy
out there at this point in time?
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: And I guess lastly, looking at the heat waves out in California, gas plants were down. Looking at 2 open seats at FERC, realizing without some grand
transmission planning in most regions that you're not going to be able to get the penetration you really need and the stability for renewables. Just
what is your strategy with regard to transmission? Or is it only as you're looking at interconnection for your own projects?
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Perfect. Well, I'd like to very much thank you for your time.
Anyone who has any questions, feel free to reach out to my team or to Matt Roskot on Rebecca's team for any follow-up.
Again, thank you very much for joining us, Rebecca. We appreciate it.
Question: Eric Thomas Beaumont - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Analyst
: Thanks. Take care.
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