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00:00You've been investing heavily neck in solar and wind. How's that going any more acquisitions on the rise in yes. So clearly we're making a transition there's a whole transition in the industry a part of that transition and you'll continue to see a migration to solar wind. Renewables Energy Storage along with potentially natural gas to support that transition. And clearly there's there's a very positive transition that's occurring and it will continue to occur for years to come. We had a Bloomberg report earlier this week about the White House planning to unveil a new rule that would make it easier for energy companies to build solar infrastructure build wind infrastructure on public lands . There's been a lot of red tape associated with that permitting process. How much of a hurdle is that been for you and what kind of difference could a rule like that make for AP Yeah it really hasn't been a hurdle for us thus far because we're building on private lands and and really focused on universal scale solar. It would obviously be helpful to be able to build in in federal jurisdictional areas but nevertheless universal scale solar is certainly continuing to be focused on not only for communities but also for particular areas of the US and we've been building solar throughout the US for a period of time now and we're very productive at it. It's one of those things where universal scale solar which typically is called utility scale solar is much more efficient. Half the cost same environmental benefits and we do it quite well. There was lower than forecast prices this summer for power. How did that impact the business is it affecting any sales or acquisitions that you might be in the process of making. Yeah I think it does. It does affect us because obviously affects jobs and job creation . When you see oil prices come down when you see natural gas prices come down it has an impact on the economy on the one hand you see some benefits in the economy but gasoline prices and so forth being lower at the same time it affects manufacturing particularly in the oil and gas and mining sectors. I mean we're seeing in natural resources side oil and gas extraction and mining twenty two thousand less jobs in those particular counties year over year. And so it's always good to have an increasing oil price and natural gas price so that we can see more production come on line. I know that you've put some power plants on the block to sell coal plants and gas fired plants . Can you give us any more information on the status of those sales maybe give us a sense of who's looked at what how far along you are in that process. Yeah that process is ongoing . It is moving toward somewhat of its final stages. We've had robust interest in those types of resources and we'll continue to evaluate that from a strategic perspective and hopefully have a result on that very soon. It's all part of that transitional mechanism that we're going through to ensure that we can move to that that energy future that we're looking for and obviously being unregulated. And as far as generation is concerned in Ohio it really doesn't fit our investors views of consistency and quality of earnings. On that note what proposal will you be making to the Ohio legislature in order to keep those plants that you want to keep under your own control so well with the Ohio legislature. We're actually pursuing restructuring not reregulation and restructuring is really focused on the future in terms of how we how we're able to build more renewables how we're able to put natural gas in this state but really focused on the ability for the state to define its interests in terms of the energy consumption in the state and the resources that supply that consumption. So it's extremely important for Ohio to take matters into its own hands particularly if you have a clean energy plan or some form of mechanism that you're forming a transition. Ohio can really take a look at that and define its own energy future in the context of jobs taxes and the creation of infrastructure. You mentioned jobs just a last question here about the employment report we expect to get tomorrow from the Labor Department. Can you talk a bit just about the role of energy in the labor market right now and how important maybe it is when the Fed raises rates how that might affect your business. Yeah it's certainly substantial in our service territory because we're in energy territory that we're in the Midwest and south central part of the US. And as I mentioned earlier the oil and gas sectors certainly the mining sectors are extremely important in our area but manufacturing is a big part of our of our customer load. I mean particularly third of our load is industrial and manufacturing so. So whenever you have an impact associated with that you're going to see chemical manufacturing being impacted ultimately you'll see oil and gas and mining of course . And what we've seen on the positive side is is automobile automobile manufacturing those types of things that are taking off Travel and Leisure health care. Those sectors are doing doing well but any energy related infrastructure is going to have an impact particularly in terms of oil and gas and mining .

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AEP CEO: Power Plant Sale Moving to Final Stages

Nick Akins, American Electric Power's chief executive officer, discusses the impact of oil and natural-gas prices on the company's business and its growth strategy with Bloomberg's Vonnie Quinn and David Gura on "Bloomberg Markets." (Source: Bloomberg)

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