This interview appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. The interview rambles along but there is much truth in the opening sentence.
A Life in Energy and (Therefore) Politics
The CEO of America’s third-largest utility on competing in an electricity market built on political fads and lobbyists.
By JOSEPH RAGO
‘Prostitution, horse racing, gambling and electricity are irresistible to politicians,” says John Rowe, the CEO of the Chicago-based utility Exelon.
He’ll give you an example of what he means: In 2009, Exelon began work on an urban solar-power project on a blighted field in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood, in part at the request of then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “Whatever it is, it’s not a scandal,” says Mr. Rowe, who explains that his company was promised (and applied for) an Energy Department loan guarantee that it ultimately did not receive. …