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Speaker 1: So there is regulation in place. Does that mean private

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Speaker 1: ownership is going to be able to provide the capital

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Speaker 1: needed to upgrade and modernize energy infrastructure?

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Speaker 2: And this especially.

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Speaker 1: As the demand is growing for clean and reliable power.

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Speaker 1: We got to talk about this big story yesterday as

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Speaker 1: it was announced AES's parent company is being acquired by

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Speaker 1: private investors, global investors. The AES Corporation, parent company of

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Speaker 1: AES Indiana, has agreed to be acquired and taken private.

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Speaker 1: This is a consortium of global investors.

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Speaker 2: What does this mean. It means Blackrock is buying AES.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people have a problem with this

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Speaker 3: and are suspicious of it, and rightly so a couple

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Speaker 3: of things going on here. So AES currently is a

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Speaker 3: publicly traded company. You could buy stock on it, and

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Speaker 3: you know, it's publicly traded on the stock exchange, and

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Speaker 3: there's good things about that because there are requirements for

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Speaker 3: certain disclosures and shareholder rights, and there's some good things

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Speaker 3: by having your utility being a publicly traded company. And

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Speaker 3: now it's being bought by a consortium that includes Blackrock,

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Speaker 3: and people are very skeptical of Blackrock for very good reasons.

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Speaker 3: Keep in mind it was Blackrock that in the last

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Speaker 3: ten years was the major pusher of DEI and corporate

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Speaker 3: green environmental initiatives at companies all over the country and

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Speaker 3: subsequently all over the world. Now, in fairness to Blackrock,

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Speaker 3: they have kind of walked a lot of those back

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Speaker 3: starting in twenty twenty four and more so in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty five, but still call me a little bit suspicious

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Speaker 3: on that. So this has brought up a lot of concerns,

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Speaker 3: especially because we know we're paying more for energy than

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Speaker 3: we ever have before, and it's a major issue, and

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Speaker 3: it's likely that we're going to pay more going forward

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Speaker 3: in the future.

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Speaker 1: So the transaction, it's expected to close later this year

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Speaker 1: or in early twenty seven, it's going to need some

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Speaker 1: approvals and lots of conditions. AES is saying that going

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Speaker 1: private will give it more financial flexibility to invest, and

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Speaker 1: they also say they don't expect utility rates to change

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Speaker 1: as a result of the sale. Of course, a lot

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Speaker 1: of people are questioning, does this mean that we could

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Speaker 1: have higher costs? Could this be hurting who's your families

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Speaker 1: and you've got this private firm. Are they going to

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Speaker 1: prioritize profits over local interests?

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Speaker 2: When it comes down to it, that's what you ask.

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Speaker 1: Okay, AES is being purchased by this global conglomerate black Rock.

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Speaker 2: Does that mean I'm going to be paying more? I

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Speaker 2: did my due diligence.

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Speaker 1: I reached out to AES and I asked if they

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Speaker 1: had somebody who would come on with us and do

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Speaker 1: a quick interview, and I in return received a paragraph

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Speaker 1: statement okay. And so I sent another email and said,

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Speaker 1: thank you for sending Is it possible to have a

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Speaker 1: representative speak on this as we are a radio station

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Speaker 1: and our audience will connect with a voice of a

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Speaker 1: real person. And I even sent the specific questions, and

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Speaker 1: again it was received with a paragraph statement.

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Speaker 3: Was it the same paragraph statement? It was ex so

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Speaker 3: not even a change in response. Correct, They've got.

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Speaker 2: Their messaging and they're sticking to it.

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Speaker 1: I want to share with you some of the questions

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Speaker 1: that I was going to ask, and then I will

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Speaker 1: share with you the statements that I've received. The first

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Speaker 1: question was, for AES's one point one million customers, what

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Speaker 1: guarantees will this sale? What guarantee can they give us

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Speaker 1: that we won't have higher electric rates? Especially once the

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Speaker 1: company is private and under pressure to return good results

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Speaker 1: to their global.

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Speaker 3: Investorsach great question.

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Speaker 1: The other question was if they needed capital, how much

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Speaker 1: of the investment is going to be tied specifically to

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Speaker 1: Indiana generation grid upgrades and reliability improvements. How much of

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Speaker 1: that money is going to come here to Indiana which

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Speaker 1: has been.

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Speaker 3: A problem, so keep in mind, I mean we had

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Speaker 3: an issue with reliability problems here with AES customers power

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Speaker 3: outages having extended delay times. That's a great, great question.

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Speaker 1: Third question was AES says it will remain locally operated

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Speaker 1: and managed here in Indiana. What does that actually mean?

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Speaker 1: Will key decisions be made in Indianapolis or will they

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Speaker 1: ultimately go to investors in New York and Stockholm and cutter?

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Speaker 1: The final question Indiana regulators are going to have to

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Speaker 1: approve aspects of the deal. What leverage does the iu

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Speaker 1: RC have to protect rate payers if their financial priorities

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Speaker 1: shift after the acquisition closes.

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Speaker 3: Hey, I would have loved to have here heard somebody

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Speaker 3: answer all these questions are a great question.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. Here is the answer that I received. Are

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Speaker 2: you ready for it?

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Speaker 3: I am?

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Speaker 1: This transaction will deliver compelling near term value to stockholders

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Speaker 1: and better position AEES to drive sustained growth across its

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Speaker 1: business units, allowing the company to deliver rel liable energy

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Speaker 1: solutions for customers and create long term value for our stakeholders,

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Speaker 1: including its workforce and local communities. For more information, please

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Speaker 1: reference the full press release below and our dedicated transaction

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Speaker 1: microsite at the Future of aes dot Com.

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Speaker 3: I didn't hear an answer to any of your questions

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Speaker 3: in that statement.

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Speaker 2: That you have to go to the future of as

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Speaker 2: dot com.

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Speaker 3: Maybe the questions will be answered there. Okay, fine, we'll

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Speaker 3: do that.

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Speaker 1: So you know, obviously, the concerns of profits over people

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Speaker 1: is real, especially when everybody's getting their utility bills and

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Speaker 1: we're hearing and seeing the increases and how much sway

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Speaker 1: will the iur see if any have over this transaction.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I am a free market capitalist. I

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Speaker 3: believe that the capitalist system is the best system in

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Speaker 3: the entire world, and that we should let the free

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Speaker 3: markets work as well as they have always worked in

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Speaker 3: the history of this country. Utilities are a monopoly, and

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Speaker 3: it makes sense. You don't want five or six different

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Speaker 3: companies all running independent electric lines to every house and

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Speaker 3: business in the entire area. That doesn't make sense. Okay,

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Speaker 3: so we're going to have a monopoly here for this

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Speaker 3: utility company. So in that specific situation, then that company

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Speaker 3: needs to be heavily regulated to protect the consumer. And

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Speaker 3: that is my biggest fear associated with this. My other

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Speaker 3: biggest fear associated with this is that I know that

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Speaker 3: the utility lobbies are one of the largest lobbies that

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Speaker 3: show up every single year at the state House and

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Speaker 3: are consistently lobbying your lawmakers and the governor from their

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Speaker 3: company's perspective. Unfortunately, we don't have lobbies for us the taxpayers,

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Speaker 3: or I guess we do. It's called the voting booth.

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Speaker 3: So what we really need to see here and what

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Speaker 3: we're going to need to expect here is a significant

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Speaker 3: bit of regulation from the IURC on how this new

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Speaker 3: corporate organization and structure is going to protect the rights

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Speaker 3: and the taxpayers and consumers of that product.

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Speaker 1: Well, the one thing that concerns me about this is

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Speaker 1: that you've got this major global conglomerate and are they

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Speaker 1: going to be making decisions out of New York and

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Speaker 1: Stockholm and cutter You know that affects people here in

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Speaker 1: little Indiaana.

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Speaker 3: Of course they are. I mean, that's the way these

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Speaker 3: multinational corporations and organizations work, They'll make their strategic decisions

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Speaker 3: at the very top and then that'll filter all the

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Speaker 3: way down to the bottom. And again that's why our

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Speaker 3: lawmakers in the IRC need to be very careful about this. Look,

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Speaker 3: I mean, like you said, there needs to be approval

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Speaker 3: and certain regulatory concessions for this to take forward, you know,

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Speaker 3: for this to move forward anyway. So this is far

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Speaker 3: from a done deal, and if it does get to

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Speaker 3: be a done deal, we're going to need more regulatory

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Speaker 3: oversight going forward.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, and you could say that the regulatory framework,

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Speaker 1: rather than demonizing private capital, is what is going to

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Speaker 1: protect the consumers. But I question, Okay, they say the

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Speaker 1: needed capital, are the projects going to move forward?

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Speaker 2: Were they going to move forward without the sale like

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Speaker 2: they want to upgrade?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that were what if.

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Speaker 2: They didn't have the sale, they weren't going to upgrade.

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Speaker 2: So this is what was needed.

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Speaker 3: The existing utility companies lobbied very hard to our lawmakers

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Speaker 3: last year to pass that SMR build and again that

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Speaker 3: was small modular reactors and it was on the surface

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Speaker 3: looked like a terrible deal for us. Look, these are

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Speaker 3: not displayed at the consumer level. Yet these small modular reactors.

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Speaker 3: Military has been experimenting with them. That's great, but they

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Speaker 3: haven't been proven out in the civilian infrastructure yet. But

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Speaker 3: the bill basically said, Hey, the vast majority of this

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Speaker 3: capital that's necessary to build these small modular reactors. If

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Speaker 3: they fail, the utility payers the consumers will end up

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Speaker 3: fitting the bill for it, even if it turns out

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Speaker 3: that the technology doesn't work. I think it's things like

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Speaker 3: that that we saw from our legislature last year. I

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Speaker 3: think that there's been a lot of questions that are

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Speaker 3: going on, and I think that's why a lot of

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Speaker 3: consumers are uneasy about everything associated with Yeah, so.

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Speaker 1: You've got as Indiana also aees Ohio. They said they're

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Speaker 1: going to continue to operate as locally managed regulated utilities.

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Speaker 2: And I guess andy z A's got his work cutout

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Speaker 2: for him.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, the new head of the IURC. I hope you

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Speaker 3: andy z A really wanted that job. He lobbied for it,

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Speaker 3: he interviewed for it, he gave up his lawmaker job

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Speaker 3: so he could be head of the IURC. And here

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Speaker 3: you go, buddy, you got a big project dropped right

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Speaker 3: in front of your lap on day one.

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Speaker 1: Practically, well, it's affecting one point one million people throughout

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Speaker 1: the state of Indiana.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm forced to use. AES just got the

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Speaker 2: bill last week.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is the situation that we're in right now.

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Speaker 3: As technology keeps growing, the demand for energy is increasing exponentially.

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Speaker 3: And look, data centers are going to be built. Maybe

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Speaker 3: they won't be built here in Indianapolis, maybe not in Indiana,

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Speaker 3: but they're going to be built somewhere in the country.

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Speaker 3: And that is going to put a significant strain on

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Speaker 3: our already strained electrical grid. And so yes, there's going

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Speaker 3: to be to have to have massive capital upgrades to this. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: we wasted so much of the last ten years on

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Speaker 3: subsidies for solar and wind and the ridiculous Green Deal

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Speaker 3: that has just failed us at every turn, instead of

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Speaker 3: investing in classic energy infrastructure. But now we've got this

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Speaker 3: massive demand with technology and AI in the energy demands

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Speaker 3: that they create. So now we're going to have to

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Speaker 3: throw all that money to upgrade our infrastructure and figure

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Speaker 3: it out.

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Speaker 1: The one thing that I would like to point out

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Speaker 1: in the response that I did receive from AES and

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Speaker 1: I'm grateful that they responded.

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Speaker 2: That was nice.

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Speaker 3: Hey, they got back to you, not once, but twice, actually.

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Speaker 2: Actually three times, because I sent.

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Speaker 1: An email and they said, no, you got to direct

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Speaker 1: these questions so this person over there. So I sent

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Speaker 1: it over there and they gave me this standard boilerplate response,

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Speaker 1: and then I said, no, no, no, we actually want

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Speaker 1: to hear somebody on the air with us, and these

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Speaker 1: are the questions, and then exact same boiler plate response.

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Speaker 2: But I just want to point out that the very first.

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Speaker 1: Sentence is, and I quote, this transaction will deliver compelling

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Speaker 1: near term value to stockholders.

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Speaker 2: You didn't you didn't hear.

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Speaker 3: For hoosiers, No, for rate payers, for consumers, that was

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Speaker 3: not part of it.

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Speaker 2: Near term value for stockholders.

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Speaker 3: And by the way, them sending you, them sending you

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Speaker 3: the exact statement twice is the corporate version of did

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Speaker 3: I stutter?

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00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:25,880
Speaker 2: This is the answer.

224
00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,800
Speaker 1: All right, you've been given the information. This is ninety

225
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:30,239
Speaker 1: three WIBC