When you consider a stock in the utilities sector of the market, I'm sure you are thinking about safety and income, not so much about over-sized gains. As a rule of thumb, these big players won't be outperforming in a bull market... but in today's uncertainty, why not trust an established utilities contractor with locked-in contracts? What makes utilities companies so much different from your typical stock is in the way they are regulated. They are essentially allowed to hold monopolies in a free market system, which makes for a big advantage in troubled times. The problem now seems to be with federal interference. The U.S. Energy bill signed back in December of 2007 has really struck a chord with bitter utilities companies, and they sometimes struggle to expand in hard times. Regardless, we like the hedged exposure many have to oil and natural gas markets