Environmentalists Endorsed TXU Buyout

Environmentalists Endorsed TXU Buyout



Feb 2007 - Environmentalists are 
pleased with the anticipated $45 billion buyout of Texas-based 
energy giant TXU by an investment group - particularly the 
group's promise to scrap eight of TXU's proposed 11 coal-fired 
plants. 
"What we're witnessing is the beginning of the end of 
investments in old-fashioned coal plants," said David Hawkins, 
a former top EPA official and head of Natural Resources 
Defense Council's climate program and the first environmental 
leader called by the buyers' group to help craft the green 
aspects of the deal. "These are very big investors coming to 
the energy table with very big ideas about where the 
competitive market is heading. Strategies to fight global 
warming and save energy are crucial for anyone hoping to 
succeed in today's electricity industry." 
Arrangements with the two buyout firms, Kohlberg Kravis 
Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group, go beyond the 
commitment to withdraw permit applications for eight of eleven 
pulverized coal power plants proposed in Texas. 
The prospective owners say they will also support a mandatory 
nationwide limit on global warming emissions paired with a 
market-based emissions trading system, endorsing the position 
of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership. 
The new company would aim to limit its total CO2 emissions 
from its generating operations and reduce them over time, and 
pledge not to propose any additional traditional pulverized 
coal plants outside Texas. 
The new investors also plan to invest $400 million in 
initiatives to help customers reduce their energy needs over 
the next five years. 
"It's time for the financial industry to prohibit any further 
investments in new coal plants and infrastructure, and for 
Congress to mandate emissions reductions and offer incentives 
that would allow American ingenuity to help create a 
21st-century energy plan that will make us proud," said 
Rainforest Action Network Executive Director Michael Brune. 
"The commitments by TXU's new owners should be binding, not 
voluntary, and the three Texas coal plants TXU still intends 
to build are three plants too many." 

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