Allegheny Energy
| File:AlleghenyEnergyLogo.gif | |
| Company type | Public (NYSE: AYE) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Utility |
| Founded | 1925 |
| Headquarters | Greensburg, Pennsylvania |
Key people | Paul J. Evanson, Chairman and CEO |
| Products | Electric Power |
| Revenue |  $3.84 billion USD |
Number of employees | 8,500 |
| Website | www.alleghenyenergy.com |
Allegheny Energy (NYSE: AYE) is a traditional public utility based in the Pittsburgh suburb of Greensburg. It services communities in Western Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, Northern West Virginia, and Northwest Virginia. The company is the region's biggest energy supplier, providing power to over 1.5 million customers, including many in suburban Pittsburgh, where it battles its chief rival, Duquesne Light for customers. An unusually large amount, about 95%, of the power produced by the company comes from coal-fired electric generating plants. Several of these are brown-coal fired, leading to concern by environmental groups over Allegheny Energy's environmental impact.
Subsidiary companies
Allegheny Energy operates its electric distribution operations under the Allegheny Power name, which is actually a collective brand that covers the company's regulated subsidiaries. These regulated subsidiaries are, West Penn Power (Pennsylvania), Monongahela Power (northern West Virginia), Potomac Edison (western Maryland, parts of eastern West Virginia, and northern Virginia), and Mountaineer Gas (West Virginia). The electric generating plants are operated under the Allegheny Generating Company subsidiary, and subsidiary companies have been established for proposed transmission line projects.
Allegheny Energy formerly operated in sections of eastern Ohio, until early 2006, when regulatory issues within Ohio forced them to sell the territory to Columbus Southern Power, a division of American Electric Power, Inc. [1]
In 1999,Monongahela Power purchased the distribution assets of West Virginia Power, a utility owned by UtiliCorp United based in Lewisburg, West Virginia. West Virginia Power's operations were centered on portions of southeastern West Virginia. [1] It is said UtiliCorp sold the subsidiary to concentrate on it's main operations in the midwestern US. UtiliCorp had purchased the division from Dominion Resources in 1986, of which it had operated as the West Virginia Power division of Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO).
Envrionmental record
In 2005, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Allegheny Energy. The suit claims that Allegheny Energy has made major upgrades at its Armstrong, Hatfield's Ferry and Mitchell electric generating stations that have dramically increased emissions without installing new pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act. The plants have continued to emit thousands of tons more pollution each year, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, which are wind-blown into New Jersey. This causes smog, acid rain, and different respiratory disease. "New Jersey continues to pursue litigation to protect our citizens' health and meet clean air quality standards," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "This decision proves that New Jersey can and will pursue action to enforce the Clean Air Act's protections even when the federal government abdicates its own responsibility to do so."[2] The three plants at issue in this litigation emit in total hundreds of thousands of tons of pollutants a year. The three plants put out more nitrogen oxide emissions than all the power plants in New Jersey combined and more than three times the total amount of sulfur dioxide emissions emitted by all New Jersey power plants.[3] The Hatfield's Ferry plant is the fifth largest single source of sulfur dioxide emissions in the country. The suit also claims violations of Pennsylvania's air pollution laws and regulations. New Jersey is seeking injunctive relief to require Allegheny to reduce its harmful emissions by installing up to date pollution controls at each of the three plants. The states also asked the court to apply penalties and order Allegheny to take additional appropriate actions to make up for the harm done to public health and the environment by its violations of federal and state law.[4]