One of the more spirited discussions at Tuesday's meeting with Councilmember Charlotte Powers at the Los Paseos Clubhouse was San Jose's need for power from the proposed Metcalf Energy Center. Members of the audience pointed out to her that Duke Energy's modernization project for the Moss Landing Power Plant will be able to deliver more than 600 MW of electricity to the Metcalf Substation. During this discussion Charlotte Powers made a strange comment questioning whether or not Duke Energy would be in business much longer. Of all the things she said during the meeting, this one comment intrigued me the most. Maybe I am reading too much into her comment but here are my three ideas of where such a comment could originate:

1) She investigated Duke Energy's financial statements

I looked at Duke Energy's (Ticker: DUK) financial status (http://quote.yahoo.com/) to see what I could find that might cause a person to think Duke Energy might not be in business much longer.

Average Recommendation of Brokers Following Duke Energy:

This Week 2.11
Last Week 2.04
Change -0.1

(Strong Buy) 1.00 - 5.00 (Strong Sell)

Earnings Growth for Duke Energy
Last 5 Years: 4.6%
Estimate for next 5 years: 8.1%

Earnings Growth for UTIL-ELEC PWR sector
Last 5 Years: 3.1%
Estimate for next 5 years: 7.6%

Duke Energy's performance is slightly above other companies in the industry so I do not think she would come to the conclusion that Duke Energy is going out of business. I also found the following quotes at Duke Energy's web site:

"Duke Energy Corporation is a premier energy company worldwide. We have a 95-year history of operations and service."

"Duke Energy was named the nation's Most Admired Gas and Electric Utility in Fortune magazine's 1999 annual listing of America's Most Admired Companies. Duke Energy is consistently a top pick by financial analysts."

If Charlotte Powers has done more in-depth research into Duke Energy's financial situation with a different conclusion, she should share this information with us.

2) She had a random thought at the meeting

I think most people would agree Charlotte Powers is very careful about choosing her words at meetings so a random thought is not very likely.

3) She heard this information from somebody else

This is probably the most likely source of her information. The question has to be asked: Is somebody waging a FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) campaign in City Hall to discredit Duke Energy's plan for modernizing the Moss Landing Power Plant?