Current U.S. nuclear waste storage strategy

Speaking of strategies to store nuclear waste, here's an article on the current de facto U.S. government strategy: compensate nuclear operators for storing onsite, and double the expense by continually pursuing doomed litigation to avoid these payments. I think in a perfect world we could probably figure out something better.

Chamber of Commerce exodus continues

Exelon has followed PG&E and New Mexico's PNM out the door, following the Chamber's now-famous proposed Scopes Monkey trial for climate change. It is a telling sign of the public power the climate change message has attained that utilities, far from fighting the coming cap-and-trade legislation, are leaving industry groups in droves (don't forget Duke Energy) to avoid being seen as obstructing it.

M&A round-up

I've been out of the office for a week so am reviewing the news. There are three resources M&A stories I found particularly noteworthy:

Sinochem approaches Australian agro-chemical producer Nufarm: With all sorts of M&A and other goings-on around China's quest to secure resources, this multi-billion dollar deal will be worth watching. A joint bid by ChemChina and Blackstone for Nufarm didn't pan out in 2007 - I'd be curious to know why, and if it sheds any light on how this attempt will pan out.

Exelon drops its bid for NRG: This was a long-running saga; Exelon does the right thing by not upping its bid further into value-destroying ranges, but now it may miss even more the federal loan guarantees for new nuclear plants that NRG got and it didn't.

The Suncor/Petro-Canada merger receives anti-trust approval: The way is cleared for the new Canadian national champion in petroleum, and probably not the last consolidating move we'll see in the sector.