Southwest

CPS Energy will issue $367 million of bonds to retire commercial paper, after absorbing a pair of downgrades following the Texas power distribution crisis.

The bond insurer adds a second office in the Lone Star State, where it does a large volume of business.

Denver is selling $274 million of dedicated tax bonds in a deal to fund projects at the National Western Stock Show complex and Colorado Convention Center.

S&P Global Ratings cut CPS Energy to AA-minus from AA, as it faces $1 billion in unbudgeted costs for buying expensive power through the state grid operator.

They assumed their jobs over the past year in the face of a pandemic, civil unrest and financial uncertainties, and in an industry often set in its ways.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas and CPS Energy, the public utility of the city of San Antonio, were downgraded after the cold weather power crisis.

Municipal bond issuers in the Southwest, despite the pandemic — or perhaps in part because of the conditions it created — set a record for annual issuance.

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative filed for bankruptcy saying it can't pay the electric bills foisted on it by the state's grid operator, ERCOT.

Municipal issuers in the Southwest sold $93.5 billion of debt in 2020, a year in which the coronavirus upended the way bond business is done.

Texas' failure to supply the power needed to save lives in a deep freeze is seen as threat to the state's recruitment of new business investment.