Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Reading Energy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:31
ShareBar

Abstract

Reading Energy builds facilities that produce energy from nontraditional fuels. A privately held, entrepreneurial organization, it has spent six years developing a plan to build a waste-to-energy plant in the town of Robbins, Illinois. The plant would burn municipal solid waste, producing electricity for sale to the local utility. Its economics are driven by the cost of alternative waste disposal technologies (mostly landfills) and by the Public Regulatory Policy Act of 1978, which ensures a market for the power. Reading's project has been delayed by political opposition at both the local and state levels. Robbins is a poor community, and some of Reading's antagonists have invoked environmental justice as a reason to oppose the project. Tom Cassel, the engineer who founded Reading, is negotiating contracts for waste with nearby municipalities. He needs to consider price, risk allocation, and other economic factors, in addition to political and social issues, in designing his firm's strategy and tactics.

Keywords

Energy Generation; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business and Community Relations; Business Plan; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Risk and Uncertainty; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Illinois

Citation

Reinhardt, Forest L. "Reading Energy." Harvard Business School Case 794-102, March 1994. (Revised October 1994.)
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Forest L. Reinhardt

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Master Kong: Growing the Instant Noodles Market in China

    By: Forest Reinhardt and Shu Lin
    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Korea: The Miracle on the Han River

    By: Sophus A. Reinert and Forest Reinhardt
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Applegate Farms

    By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
More from the Author
  • Master Kong: Growing the Instant Noodles Market in China By: Forest Reinhardt and Shu Lin
  • Korea: The Miracle on the Han River By: Sophus A. Reinert and Forest Reinhardt
  • Applegate Farms By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College