Investors Complete Landmark Coal Power Takeover

The deal to take the huge Texas electric power company TXU private was historic for two reason: At $45 billion, it was the largest leveraged buyout in history, but beyond that it is the first time powerful investors have demanded the scuttling of plans to build new coal-fired power plants as a condition of the deal.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG announced its intentions to take the company private (it's now called Energy Future Holdings, and you won't find it on the New York Stock Exchange) in February, to great acclaim from environmental advocates. TXU has been a target of ire because of its plans to build 11 new coal-fired power plants at a time when coal is maligned as the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming (not to mention its contribution to pollutants that cause acid rain, smog and a number of lung and heart ailments).

Now, eight of those plants are off the table.

Whether the move turns out to set precedents for investors concerned about the risk -- financial, environmental or otherwise -- of buying into dirty energy projects remains to be seen. It's certainly a positive sign that the deal went through, particularly since some TXU shareholders had expressed skepticism early on.

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