Word: lilco
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...budget, while local companies and state officials debated whether to save the plant. In New York, nearly 4,000 maintenance workers went on strike over wages against troubled Long Island Lighting, which is on the brink of default, the first ever in the 74-year history of the utility. Lilco Chairman William Catacosinos has bluntly stated that the company could be "forced into involuntary bankruptcy" next week...
...Lilco is not the only power company whose managers are seriously talking about bankruptcy, which has not happened to a major utility in the U.S. since World War II. About half a dozen of America's 100 largest electric utilities are near that drastic step. What is more, these are among the biggest and most respected in the country, and how they handle their problems will determine the response of the entire industry...
...objects of the most pessimism, in addition to Consumers Power and Lilco, are Public Service Co. of Indiana, Public Service Co. of New Hampshire and United Illuminating of Connecticut. All undertook ambitious nuclear power programs in the 1970's, then saw those projects threatened by antinuke sentiment after Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island accident. On top of that came searing double-digit inflation and rising interest rates that drove up construction costs to four and five times the estimates. The oil shocks of the 1970's made it all the harder for the utilities to produce cheap...
...York's Lilco is in the worst shape of all, and Wall Street analysts bet that if there is a utility bankruptcy, Lilco will be the first. Lilco is awaiting approval of $200 million in bank loans, along with rate increases of another $200 million, but help from both quarters is uncertain. Governor Mario Cuomo has said he will not support a state bailout to prevent a Lilco bankruptcy, and regulatory authorities are ensnarled in what size rate hikes to grant...
...Lilco's albatross is its Shoreham nuclear power plant, completed in 1975 but inoperative since then because of lawsuits over safety and evacuation plans that would be used in case of an accident. Shoreham's cost was originally projected at $241 million, but the utility has already spent closer to $4 billion. The company loses about $1.5 million for each day that Shoreham's start-up is delayed...