CMS
#You are welcome.
Thank you.
Yes it is.
Bedford is an existing site that we have.
It has gas infrastructure, has electric infrastructure in place.
We currently have a permit that I think extends through this year into next year, so we have an active permit to build on that site that has been approved by the DEQ.
I do not expect to move forward with that.
We pretty much put the project on hold until we see what happens with legislation, but, yes, it's a great site, it's ready.
The community will accept it.
We've got older peakers on the site right today, and we could move forward if we need to.
The commonality.
I think generally everybody agrees with start with retail open access.
We have to do something about it because there's an unfair subsidy.
What we do about it is a debate.
Is it 10% with the queue.
Is it full regulation which we are moving away from full regulation more to keeping the 10% with probably a one-way door.
So, if you return, will stay with the utility.
The integrated resource plan is a bit of a debate because what the governor is trying to do is put in a plan that meets the EPA clean power plan that also is best for Michigan while at the same time I think some of the Democrats in the House and Senate want to have a standard in there that they can count to that, that will be part of the law regardless of what happens with the integrated resource plan.
So that's a debate right now.
The commonality, I think we've talked about this in the past from a regulatory standpoint, self implementation will probably go away, but will advance the timing of rate cases from 12 months to 10 months, and if they are not done in ten months you go into full implementation.
Could I just add a little bit.
I would just say you've got two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, that have moved closer together.
Definitely.
And there is a lot of similarity in those bills, but there are some people who really don't like certain parts and so of course now is the time people are pushing real hard.
There are individuals who are pushing real hard on different points in different ways, but I would say the momentum is in those two bills which is pretty good.
I would say there's a lot more commonality at this point, even with a lot of arguments going on from a few people to move ahead with a pretty good law.
I think, <UNK> were confident it's going to be done by the end of the year.
There isn't ---+ I mean we've had the hearings, the hearings are completed.
We are very close and I think they are very close.
If they weren't I don't think we would have rated this as successful by the end of the year.
Here we are almost in November that in two months this thing's going to get done.
The wonderful thing about that is the 2008 energy law is pretty good.
Yes.
_
And we are in quite a great position if nothing changed, but this is a wonderful opportunity to address the EPA rules, to address renewables, to address ROA, to address a little bit better regulation.
And so there's a lot of opportunity in there for our customers, and we are thrilled about it.
I'm going to pile on one more time, <UNK>.
You also have two leaders there and three with the governor, but these two leaders have really spent a lot of time with Senator Noss and Representative Nesbitt to get this thing right so that they could be aligned.
They have spent a lot of time, a lot of committee hearings, and they've been talking about it for quite a while.
When they bring they bring it together they want to make sure that the debate is limited.
It is in the bills, whether it will make it or not we will see.
It is in the bills ---+ and on the gas ---+ it's on the gas side it exists today.
The way it is structured in there, it's optionality.
It so it so that if a utility wanted to ask the public service commission for decoupling, then they could do that.
It gives the commission the authority to do that with the clarity that wasn't there for both the gas and electric last time.
And then the commission and the utilities get a chance to decide if they want to put it to use when you get out there in future rate cases.
No.
We don't see any issues there.
I think the filings and things they are doing with FERC to move along and keep the plant running successfully appear to be all going well.
Our only issue, candidly is at the end of the contract with us we would like to make sure for our customers that it is more economical.
If it turns out that building a gas plant is a lot cheaper for our customers then we have to negotiate hard to extend the contract or go with what's best for them.
But everything we know and you should ask them rather than us ---+ they appear to be doing a good job.
No.
We're so chicken we are unbelievable.
We have ---+ just because we got frightened in 2002, we never got let go of this idea that we just want to be conservative when it comes to the financial side of the business.
So for the parent, we actually reach out for two years, and we don't necessarily take the debt out, but we raise the debt so that the cash is in place.
We don't do it with arbitrage or hedging or anything like that.
We literally raise the cash.
You are going to say what kind of conservative people are you.
But we are.
We raise it.
We put that in place, and then when the economics are right to actually call the debt and take it out we do that.
So we have the resources ready to go for two years out in time and it's just that simple.
There's no magic to it.
Do you mean how much cash.
You know what, this is really easy to do, because we give you our maturity schedule on the parent and the utility.
Just look at that look forward and you can see either there is nothing left for the next two years or whatever the debt is go look at cash line, and you will see it is bigger than that.
So you can watch that all the time as we move through time depending on the size of the maturities.
We like being chicken, by the way.
(laughter)
Good.
(laughter)
All right.
Let me close things out.
First of all I of all I want to thank everybody for joining us today on the call this morning.
We are pleased with the quarter, and we look for to future success both this year next year.
And we look forward to seeing you at EEI.
With that we will close it out and thank you for joining us.
