Electricity

Rules for Swaps to Protect Customer’s Money, Maybe

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US CFTC approves new rule to protect swaps customer funds
Washington (Platts)
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission by a 4-to-1 vote Wednesday approved a final rule on how futures commission merchants protect their customers’ money, the latest in what is expected to be a long line of new rules on how customer funds are handled.

The rule applies only to swaps, not futures, and drew criticism from the CFTC’s two Republican commissioners for doing little to prevent the mammoth loss of customer funds that followed MF Global’s collapse in October. …

Electricity, Generation

This could be a electricity buyer’s market signal

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Outlook negative for merchants, independent power producers: S&P
Washington (Platts)
The 2012 outlook for US merchant and independent power producers is negative, according to a new analysis by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service that pointed to a continued weak economy, low natural gas prices and no significant coal plant retirements until 2014.

“We expect significant headwinds for the merchant sector in 2012 due to continuing downward bias on commodity prices. We think demand will remain subdued, and the capital markets could become less accessible to these issuers due to prospects of a…