News & Events

Joe F. Colvin : Good morning. I'm delighted you were able to join us this morning. It's a pleasure to see so many familiar faces at what has become an annual event for us at NEI.

When we did this the first time back in January 1998, only a dozen-or-so states had restructured and there was a lot of concern in many circles about the prospects for the U.S. nuclear energy industry.

I remember telling you all that competition was the best thing that had happened to this industry in a long, long time because it would focus political attention on the strategic importance of nuclear energy; because it would remove stranded costs as an issue and allow us to focus on operating economics going forward; and because it would serve as a powerful impetus for consolidation in the industry.

We still think all that's true. In fact, it's all coming true and we think the stars are aligned as favorably as they have been since the early days of nuclear energy in this nation.

We follow closely what the financial community writes and reports about the electric power industry and we see a consensus that this sector generally is undervalued by the market even though the fundamentals—earnings growth, cash flow and so forth—are strong.

As far as nuclear energy is concerned, we tend to agree. We think the fundamentals are very strong and we are convinced that we have not yet fully unlocked the value in our 103 reactors.