When All That CO2 Starts Getting Buried, Who Is Going to Make The Big Bucks?
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
Like we said last week (See They May Be an Odd Couple, But Honda & Total Could Be a Winning ‘Green’ Investment), if you want to know which companies will be winners in the coming carbon-constrained, alternative-energy-dominated universe, don’t ask Wall Street because it threw away a generation of green analysts when Enron blew up.
Instead, ask a subject specialist, which, when it comes to controlling carbon dioxide emissions, means speaking with Peter Fusaro, chairman of New York-based Climate Change Associates, whose work in developing carbon trading markets and advising corporate and institutional clients is attracting a crowd.
EnergyTechStocks.com wanted to know: Which companies are going to benefit if and when all that carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants starts getting buried underground, as has been proposed by the Obama administration?
Fusaro needed a nanosecond before answering: Blue Source LLC, the self-described North American leader in carbon capture and storage projects. Fusaro went even farther, telling EnergyTechStocks.com, “Blue Source is the biggest carbon sequestration player on the planet.” Asked for a runner-up, Fusaro couldn’t think of one.
Privately-held Blue Source is a portfolio company of another private firm, First Reserve Corp., a leading private equity investor in the energy industry. But if investors are so inclined, they may want to consider investing in two other big Blue Source backers, Goldman Sachs Group (Symbol: GS) and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group (Symbol: OZM).
Goldman has an equity stake in Blue Source. It also has what the two firms describe as a “strategic alliance” that, basically, should enable Goldman to be the principal market maker for Blue Source if and when the carbon “credits” generated by Blue Source’s sequestration projects can be sold to polluters under a U.S. or global “cap-and-trade” system. Given that Fusaro sees cap-and-trade being a $3 trillion market one day (See Emissions Trading Expert Peter Fusaro: Carbon Trading is going to be Bigger than Oil Trading), that could mean billions just in fees flowing into Goldman’s coffers.
Blue Source also has what the company describes as a “strategic investment partnership with affiliate investment funds” of asset management firm Och-Ziff. Last August Blue Source said Och-Ziff investment funds have committed up to $500 million to build projects that add up to a “carbon highway” for capturing, transporting and sequestering power-plant CO2 emissions. At the time, Och-Ziff said Blue Source “has a unique leadership position” in the carbon-control industry.
