Sorry, I Thought You Were Someone Else

Everyone's favorite coal-burner, TXU Corp., is thinking very seriously about its role in the world and has done the only thing that a power-generating company can do in this age of global warming. Yup, it's changing its name.

The Dallas-based energy behemoth will split into three components. First, its production component will become Luminant Energy, then its delivery people (the cables and repairs guys) become Oncor. And don't those just sound like cuddly, nonpolluting li'l corporations?

If you're wondering about the retailers who actually sell to domestic and industrial users, they'll remain TXU Energy. Possibly this is because the experience of electricity deregulation around the state had shown that people hate it when the name at the top of their electricity bill changes.

Does this mean they'll stop shilling the untenable notion of clean coal (the kind that produces kittens and lavender instead of soot and carbon dioxide)? Now that's crazy talk.