U.S. Public Finance
Today’s municipal market is increasingly complex and challenging. We understand that to make decisions with confidence, you want new insights about credit risk. Whether you are an issuer, intermediary or investor, you need information about this risk that’s based on in-depth market knowledge, forward-looking analyses and transparent criteria. And that’s where our insight is essential.
Prolonged Cold Spell Could Pressure U.S. Not-For-Profit Electric Utilities Ratings
- S&P Global Ratings is monitoring potential unbudgeted power-procurement costs and damages facing public power and electric cooperative utilities as a result of the Jan. 25-26 severe weather event referred to as Winter Storm Fern.
- In particular, the storm’s freezing rain and ice caused historic levels of customer outages throughout the Nashville Electric Service (NES) territory, but based on its initial infrastructure assessments, we believe NES is well positioned to absorb financial impacts given its strong liquidity position ($519 million), which provides a bridge to federal aid.
- The storm led to increased demand for heat and power, causing widespread spikes in natural-gas spot and wholesale electricity prices across power markets both in and beyond Tennessee, and the financial metrics of our rated utilities in the region may be pressured if cost-recovery practices do not dynamically recover costs.
Four U.S. Public Pension Points To Watch In 2026
Driven primarily by positive market returns, U.S. public pension funded ratios have reached an average of over 80% as of fiscal 2025--improving every year since fiscal 2022 and increasing nearly 10 percentage points over this period. S&P Global Ratings expects this momentum will continue in fiscal 2026 given market performance over the first half.
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