Moody’s Investors Service on Friday lowered its outlook for the U.S. regulated utility sector to negative, warning that high natural gas prices, inflation and rising interest rates could mean power providers struggle to promptly recover their costs.
“The outlook could return to stable if the sector’s regulatory support remains intact,” the ratings agency said.
Fuel prices and economic factors “raise residential customer affordability issues, increasing the level of uncertainty with regard to the timely recovery of costs for fuel and purchased power, as well as for rate cases more broadly,” the firm said.
