NEWS: The Ohio PUC approved the sale of AES to BlackRock—under these provisions:

The terms: AES Ohio will remain a regulated utility and “may not include any costs related to executing the merger transaction in customer rates.” Members of the Board of Directors with financial interests in the data center industry must “recuse themselves” from participating in relevant decisions.

The context: BlackRock has been working on buying AES for several months. The $33B deal went through despite consumer groups claiming it was against the public’s interest.