Bloomberg: Exelon Said to Reach Tentative Pact With Mayor Over Pepco Deal

Washington’s mayor is sharing with stakeholders a tentative agreement reached with Exelon Corp. on its $6.8 billion proposal to buy utility Pepco Holdings Inc., people with direct knowledge of the discussions said.

The draft agreement, presented by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office to groups that have weighed in on the takeover before city utility regulators, would include more customer credits than Exelon and Pepco initially proposed, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. It would also require Exelon to establish a second headquarters in Washington, where Pepco is already based, one of the people said.

Washington Post: Why Cheap Natural Gas Is Thwarting the Battery and Energy Storage Revolution

If new research is correct, the installation of energy storage in the United States, especially at the scale of the electricity grid, might already be much further along if not for one major countervailing economic factor. The problem is that energy storage competes quite directly in many cases with natural gas, and in recent years, natural-gas prices have been quite low. That’s been thwarting storage adoptions, even though, in the long run, and especially from an environmental perspective, more storage would be a desirable option.

Such is the result of a new study just out in Energy Policy by Eric Hittinger of the Rochester Institute of Technology and Roger Lueken of the Brattle Group. “Since 2008,the energy storage industry has faced an unfortunate trend: as the new storage technologies have become ready for the market and the more mature technologies have lowered their costs, the decreasing cost of natural gas has been reducing the potential revenue of energy storage,” the authors conclude.

Barrons: How Much Will Apple's EV Cost?

How much could a car mean to Apple (AAPL) earnings? Perhaps 32 cents per share in extra earnings come 2019, the rumored ship date of an Apple automobile.

That’s the takeaway from a mammoth 68-page note today from Jefferies & Co.’s Sundeep Bajikar, who writes that his “analysis suggests the automobile industry is ripe for disruption and Apple is well positioned to introduce a car, potentially as early as 2019.”

Investopedia: How Energy’s Debt Bubble Affects Your Portfolio

Many companies in the oil industry have seen the writing on the wall for quite some time. Over the last four years, the cash flows of smaller and mid-sized U.S. oil exportation and production companies have lagged behind their cash expenditures and debt. They've been allowed to take on and issue more debt because of the expectation that, once the market reaches its peak, adequate cash flows will result.

But recent events have quieted talk of a dramatic comeback for oil prices in the second half of 2015. With oil prices depressed for a prolonged period, expect a correction in the sector.

How will the industry landscape change? Those struggling will be forced to do whatever they can to stay afloat or get eaten up by the bigger fish. As these corrections occur, opportunities to make a profit will present themselves to investors.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 4 Workers Hurt in Explosion at SunEdison's Texas Plant

Police say four workers are being treated for burns after an explosion and fire at a chemical plant along the Houston Ship Channel.

Pasadena police say the accident happened Friday morning and the fire has been put out at the silicon plant operated by Maryland Heights-based SunEdison Inc.

Pasadena police spokesman Vance Mitchell says the injured workers were stable and transported to hospitals for treatment of burns not believed to be life-threatening. Their names weren't immediately released.