This article from Chadbourne & Parke’s Project Finance NewsWire documents a roundtable discussion held at Chadbourne’s Seventeenth Annual Global Energy and Finance Conference. NERA Affiliated Consultant Mike King participated in the discussion with three other veteran power market forecasters: Steve Dean, President of DAI Management Consultants; Art Holland, Director of Power and Fuels Price Forecasting for Pace Global Energy Services; and Hugh Wynne, Senior Utility Analyst with Sanford Bernstein & Co. The panel was moderated by Chadbourne Partner Keith Martin.

The panelists discussed the outlook for US wholesale power markets, which regions of the US offer the best opportunities for project developers, and what effect carbon controls are likely to have on the market when they are eventually imposed by the US government. With many US states moving forward with their own controls without waiting for the federal government to act, public companies are under pressure from shareholders to disclose the potential future costs of complying with these controls. Mr. King predicted what to expect from the coming battle in Congress over new pollution controls as well as the effects these controls will have on the US power market.