Daniel Englander
The Morning Feedstock May 9, 2008 at 5:40 AM
When José Ignacio Sánchez Galán woke up yesterday morning, he looked in the mirror, saw what he had to put on, and then he went to the gym and put it on. With the bid deadline looming, Galán’s Iberdrola is reportedly putting the final touches on its proposal to acquire 35 percent of British Energy. And it looks like it’s moving in alone. Despite reports that Iberdrola would partner with Centrica, the owner of British Gas, to take on French nuclear giant EDF, late breaking news this morning has Centrica jumping ship. The UK utility has reportedly signed on to a joint bid with EDF as a junior partner in a 75/25 joint venture. This surprise doesn’t necessarily leave Iberdrola in the lurch. Though the company had said it wouldn’t consider an independent bid as late three days ago, it may have seen the writing on the regulatory wall and imagined an opening for itself on the Continent. EU lawmakers voted on May 7 to push ahead with unbundling regulations, which will lead to a break up of transmission and generation capacity throughout Europe.
Unfortunately, some of our lawmakers in the Senate appear not to have been inspired by Galán’s intestinal fortitude. The Lieberman-Warner climate bill, a mildly lame attempt to regulate emissions is becoming lamer, and may eventually pass into obscurity. As Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) struggles to wrangle up the 60 votes she and her supporters need to move the bill through the Senate, many worry that the climate bill will become watered down, limiting severely its already limited effect. A proposal meant to appease moderates currently on the table would allow the president to, in the words of John Warner (R-VA), “pull back the throttle” if emissions targets weren’t getting met by current technology or if consumer prices increased sharply. Kind of like now.
Perhaps because we were a little bit jealous of ethanol’s very special episode, Greentech Media has decided to have one of its very own. Today we learn about the importance of community and openness as we welcome aboard Mike Kanellos - pro blogger, technologist extraordinaire, media guru, and greentech analyst to the stars. Mike joined us on Monday after a 12 year stint at CNET and has been blogging on Green Light for the past few days - his are the posts without typos. We’re happy Mike’s here and are sure you’ll be too.
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