New White House stance on emissions lifts alternative energy

In a Rose Garden speech Wednesday afternoon, the president is expected to propose stopping the growth of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and call for electricity generators to slow those emissions within 10 to 15 years.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Kevin Book in a client note said the White House move "could lead to a positive market response for names levered to clean power generation (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.), hybrid vehicles components, and U.S. natural gas extraction."

Shares of solar energy companies surged in late morning trading: First Solar Inc. rose $8.86, or 3.1 percent, to $295.92, Evergreen Solar Inc. rose 20 cents to $10.64 and SunPower Corp. $4.82, or 5.1 percent, to $99.18.

Zoltek Cos., which makes carbon fibers used in wind turbine blades, rose 80 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $23.52.

Earlier this week, Book also mentioned natural gas producers Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. as potential benefiting from Bush's new position. Shares of both natural gas companies rose more than 2 percent.

The analyst also said methane producer CNX Gas Corp. "might benefit from demand at the same time that they potentially monetize 'offsets' at zero monitoring costs."

The White House call for a greenhouse gas cap, could result in short-term "selling pressure on coal mining, refining, coal-levered utilities, and heavy oil extraction names," Book said.

Longer term, the administration's position could be a windfall for engineering and construction companies that build new energy facilities or retrofit existing ones, he said.

"The scale of the retrofit and new energy infrastructure investment that is required to enable fossil fuel combustion under global climate controls could run into the multi-trillion dollar range, far outstripping clean tech investment," Book wrote.