NEWS: BlackRock’s $33B attempt to buy AES is getting messy.

The deal: In March, news broke that BlackRock is leading a group looking to buy AES Corp for $33.4B. AES owns Indianapolis Power & Light Company and Dayton Power & Light Company, which serve over 1M customers.

The speedbump: Public Citizen and other consumer advocacy groups are demanding that FERC reject the merger, claiming it violates public interest. The issue? As former FERC Chair Mark Christie noted in 2025, asset managers like BlackRock could “use their ownership of competing assets to exert market power in wholesale energy, capacity, and ancillary services markets.”