BlackRock Urges FERC to Keep Public Utility Investment Policy

BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard joined renewable energy developers and the largest electric utilities in pressing US energy regulators to keep a long-standing practice of granting blanket authorization for investment companies to hike funding to public utilities.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s actions to allow investment companies to own up to 20% of the outstanding voting securities of a public utility meets regulators’ public interest standard, those groups said in comments filed this week.

“These blanket authorizations provide a stable shareholder base for the energy sector that keeps the cost of capital low, which leads to more stable energy prices for ...