Hmm. And so here we have PPL crying poverty, claiming that if Pennsylvania is so foolish as to reinstitute some form of rate cap - which would prevent the utility from jacking up prices by 34.5 percent at the end of 2009 - it could even go bankrupt.

Heavens!

But, let’s parse this hysteria a little bit.

PPL, as you may or may not know, posted record profits last year. This was, in part, because it sold some Latin American subsidiaries. But it was also, according to the Allentown Morning Call, because of “higher profit margins on domestic energy sales.”

Got that? Even without the major rate increase coming at the end of next year, the utility is already making more money off domestic energy sales than it had been previously.

Because the firm won’t be able to re-sell those Latin American subsidiaries, the company has reported it expects profits to drop a bit this year from last year’s totals; $2.35 to $2.45 per share in 2008 versus $3.44 per share in 2007.

But:

The company also reaffirmed its 2010 earnings forecast of $4 per share to $4.60 per share.

In other words - PPL expects profits to soar, expects record profits and then some after it hikes rates by 34.5 percent. Indeed, the Patriot-News tells us:

PPL Corp. confirmed yesterday that it expects the expiration of its rate cap at the end of 2009 to add $850 million to profits in 2010 alone.

So while I don’t doubt PPL’s assertion that energy is getting more expensive to produce, I do seriously tend to doubt that any attempt to put a brake on the extreme rate increase via a renewed cap - even at a higher level, which would be the compromise position - is going to put PPL into the poorhouse. They simply might have to settle for the four-bedroom ranch rather than the McMansion.