USEC Picking Up Efforts (USEC, HON)

USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) has appointed Christine M. Ciccone as senior vice president of external relations.  This is not going to just be a media and government affairs position.  This position is meant to lead the public policy efforts with the U.S. government, media, and stakeholders, but will also develop and implement strategic communication plans for the company in a position that reports directly to President/CEO John Welch.

It sounds a lot like an effort to try to rectify the government’s recent decision to not approve a loan guarantee.  She has served as a legislative assistant to Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH), as assistant staff director and general counsel for the Senate Appropriations Committee, special assistant to the President for legislative affairs at the White House, and most recently vice president of government relations for Honeywell International, Inc.  In short, USEC has decided to bring in a Washington and industry insider after this unexpected denial.

Ciccone was listed as being a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and holds degrees from the George Washington University School of Law and the U.S. Naval War College.

USEC has been scrambling since last month’s decision after the Obama administration rejected the federal loan guarantees to build the American Centrifuge Plant located in Ohio.  Upon this news, we listed some suggestions of our own for the company to take in order to get more of a public awareness and more public support to influence policy in Washington.  It seems that this notion might not be too far off the mark.

So far, this is not being treated as significant news.  Wall Street is still jaded and has a “show me” attitude now after a 50% bounce off of the March lows.   We expected this, but we still expect more to come from the company.  The focus is not just the 2,000 jobs immediately affected from this decision.  This boils down to carbon-free energy and a dependence upon foreign energy sources.  If you have seen any of documentaries on Yucca Mountain in Nevada, you’ll figure out that Nevada could have a  purpose outside of the raw desert and Las Vegas.

Shares at mid-day are only up 0.4% at $4.67 and the 52-week trading range is $2.58 to $7.24.

JON C. OGG
August 24, 2009