Well-Coiffed Governors, Beware

Those of you who breathe and/or can't stand the thought of deformed, three-eyed amphibians taking over Texas may want to read several recently published New York Times articles on TXU, the corporation that had planned to build 11 coal plants throughout the state.

Interested in a buyout, investors Texas Pacific and Kohlberg Kravis just completed several weeks of negotiations with the corporation that brought prominent environmental groups like Environmental Defense and NRDC into the fray:

By bringing the environmental groups into the process, the buyers may have helped avert years of costly litigation over emissions from their plants. But they may also have raised new questions about how they will meet the energy needs that TXU intended to address by building all 11 plants; the company is said to be examining ways to expand in cleaner forms of energy. None of the parties interviewed was able to provide details.

Environmentalists said they hoped that the TXU deal would represent a turning point in the attitude of energy businesses as they adjust to what many anticipate will be a new regulatory and public-relations landscape in an era of climate change.

“We have history’s largest purchase of a power company, with the new owners wanting to move the company in a direction that is consistent with a world that takes global warming seriously,” said David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the two environmental groups invited to the negotiations. That group, and the other participant, Environmental Defense, which often use the courts to confront businesses, are persistent critics of TXU.

Plans to build 8 of the 11 plants have thus far been abandoned by TXU, but the corporation has until April 16th to seek out other potential buyers.

Rick Perry's almost certainly been making some calls.