We wrote a couple of weeks ago that EFH took a noncash *goodwill Impairment charge* of 8.9 billion. But that wasn't the whole enchilada. From the Star-Telegram

Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp., said Tuesday that it lost $9.8 billion in 2008 after taking a previously disclosed $8.9 billion write-down in the value of its assets because of the nation’s continuing financial crisis.

Not counting unusual charges, the company said, it lost $876 million for the year, compared with a profit of nearly $1.3 billion in 2007. The difference was largely produced by sharply higher interest costs on the roughly $45 billion in debt used to acquire TXU in October 2007.

Why are they losing money? Slowdown in commercial and industrial users demand. How is that? Really, what causes that? Less business around? Or are they all cracking the whips in their companies to be more energy efficient?

P.S., I've been seeing energy companies in some other states that are trying to get customers to pick up the charges for building nuclear power plants. I'm waiting to see if EFH tries to do that.