Tuesday, December 13, 2005

No federal bailout for Entergy

I hope this doesn't set New Orleans back, but I agree with this guy. There are many companies in financial trouble after Katrina. And the way I understand this, Entergy was in financial difficulties before Katrina. Thye parent company is doing very well, but won't help out its subsidiary. We shouldn't bail out companies just because they are big. The stockholders are responsible for losses. And we shouldn't make the rate-payers pony up for this loss either. Where is the Public Service Commission on this?
Times Picayune:
"Entergy Corp. investors, not taxpayers, should pay for the $350 million that the company's bankrupt New Orleans utility needs to rebound from Hurricane Katrina, a senior White House official wrote in a letter to an Entergy executive.

'The risk of a financial loss from a natural disaster is one that any investor in a private firm must face, and it would be wrong for the taxpayer to bail out those investors after the fact,' wrote Allan Hubbard, chairman of the White House's Gulf Coast Recovery and Rebuilding Council."

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