First, it contributed to a higher cost of capital for PNW. The firm’s share prices had been more volatile than usual for a public utility, yielding a higher beta and cost of equity. Similarly, the firm’s debt rating had slipped from A- to BBB+, producing a cost of debt higher by 75 basis points at the margin. In the former environment of return regulation, it might have been possible for PNW to recover the higher capital costs from consumers. But in the current deregulating environment, where consumers could purchase power from a variety of producers on the power grid, cost disadvantages would lead to a loss of market share.