Private Equity Greening

Texas Utilities was taken private in a $45B leveraged buy out. Why do I care? Not because I'm loosely in finance. It's because the new owners are going to shut down 8 of 11 dirty coal plants that were planned. Environmentalists rejoice! Private Equity Heroes!

The unusual decision by the two equity firms to engage in discussions with environmentalists before the deal reflect the change in the investment climate for coal-fired plants, environmentalists said yesterday.

The deal approved last night "sends a pretty powerful message that you cannot embark on a new coal-fired generation plant without doing very extensive due diligence and making sure the risks are manageable," said Dan Bakal , director of electric power programs for Ceres, a Boston-based nonprofit coalition of environmental and investor groups.