Message Received, Understood
February 26, 2007
04:14 PM
A top business story this weekend is that private investors plan to buy TXU Corp., the biggest utility in Texas. Dallas-based TXU has attracted a lot of attention lately because of its controversial plan to build 11 new coal-fired plants that would use less efficient technologies in lieu of newer, more climate-friendly technologies. The private investors have indicated that they will rethink these plans.
In Congress, momentum is building to pass legislation that will cap global warming pollution. A concern among lawmakers is that TXU was rushing to build these plants, in part to lay claim that their new greenhouse gas emissions should be “grandfathered” once a climate change bill is enacted.
Congress is not likely to go along with such a strategy. Senate Energy Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman and Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer made that clear in a joint op-ed published last month in The Dallas Morning News. Re: this weekend’s biz news, here’s what Sen. Bingaman has to say:
"I am pleased that the financial community is beginning to respond to our concerns about plans to build new power plants that will produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, at dilute concentrations, that might never be captured at any realistic price. At the same time, we need to redouble our efforts at the Federal level to develop a comprehensive portfolio of economically and environmentally sound solutions for future electric power generation, including solutions that capture and store carbon dioxide for the long term."
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