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This document contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations, and we assume no obligation to update these statements or make any further statements on any of these issues, except as required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as "predict," "hope," "may," "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "require," "intend," "assume" and similar words. Because actual results may differ materially from expectations, we caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. A number of factors could cause future results to differ materially from historical results, or from results or outcomes currently expected or sought by us. These factors include, but are not limited to:
- state and federal regulatory and legislative decisions and actions, including the outcome of the rate case APS filed with the ACC on June 27, 2003 and the wholesale electric price mitigation plan adopted by the FERC;
- the outcome of regulatory, legislative and judicial proceedings relating to the restructuring;
- the ongoing restructuring of the electric industry, including the introduction of retail electric competition in Arizona and decisions impacting wholesale competition;
- market prices for electricity and natural gas;
- power plant performance and outages;
- weather variations affecting local and regional customer energy usage;
- energy usage;
- regional economic and market conditions, including the results of litigation and other proceedings resulting from the California energy situation, volatile purchased power and fuel costs and the completion of generation and transmission construction in the region, which could affect customer growth and the cost of power supplies;
- the cost of debt and equity capital and access to capital markets;
- our ability to compete successfully outside traditional regulated markets (including the wholesale market);
- the performance of our marketing and trading activities due to volatile market liquidity and deteriorating counterparty credit and the use of derivative contracts in our business (including the interpretation of the subjective and complex accounting rules related to these contracts);
- changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America;
- the successful completion of our generation construction program;
- regulatory issues associated with generation construction, such as permitting and licensing;
- the performance of the stock market and the changing interest rate environment, which affect the amount of our required contributions to our pension plan and nuclear decommissioning trust funds, as well as our reported costs of providing pension and other postretirement benefits;
- technological developments in the electric industry;
- the strength of the real estate market in SunCor’s market areas, which include Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Utah;
- conservation programs; and
- other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control.
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