FirstEnergy’s Hometown Paper Notes Company’s ‘Financial Spiral’

IEEFA’s report on FirstEnergy gets coverage today from the Akron Beacon Journal, the company’s hometown paper.

Betty Lin-Fisher, a Beacon Journal business writer, sums it up like this: “First Energy’s stock price is down more than 30 percent since July 2012, even as the broader stock market and energy stocks in general have soared, the report said. FirstEnergy cut shareholder dividends by 35 percent in January 2014 and increased short-term annual debt obligations by 21 percent from 2012 to 2013. Its credit rating has dropped well below those of competitors. It has written off billions of dollars in lost value from its fleet of coal plants. And while most other utilities are moving to curb coal-fired generation, First Energy continues to use coal to produce two-thirds of the electricity it creates, the report said.”

Here’s the full article.

Here’s the report.

The Beacon Journal also reported last week on a court settlement limiting the number of people who can protest in front of the homes of FirstEnergy executives. Here’s that story.