Good news and bad news today in The War Against Oil.
The good news is that a U.S. renewable energy outfit, Horizon Wind Energy, was sold for $2.2 billion today, further proof that there's gold in them thar' zephyrs.
The bad news? Horizon was sold to a Portugeese company, EDP. Nothing here against the Portuguese. And the owner of Horizon had been Goldman Sachs, which was looking to flip it ever since it purchased the company two years ago for $1 billion.
It's more like the feeling you get when your strong local bank gets bought by the big national bank. The jobs may stay here, but the decisions won't. There may be some charitable contributions but, over time, you know they're going to be giving the big bucks to people near their headquarters.
There are no antitrust issues. EDP moves from 6th to 4th in wind generation with the acquisition. The problem is that American financiers obviously still see renewables as a trading flip, not as strategic. So long as this remains the case, deals like this will only accelerate. If we wake up 10 years from now and find that Europe owns the energy future we've been sailing to, it will be too late.
EDP stock was up, but Standard & Poor's downgraded its debt after the deal was announced. The deal smells a bit like the kind of deals U.S. phone companies made during the 1990s, buying up foreign phone firms with no clear idea how to grow them. If that turns out to be the case, it's more opportunity for others.
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