A group of utility companies have banded together to push for clean energy policies in the United States in response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s stance on climate laws. They stand to gain from any new policies, which puts some exchange traded funds (ETFs) in a position to perform if ideas one day become reality.
A group of utility companies have come together to create American Businesses for Clean Energy. Most of the companies joining the group stand to gain from new energy policies in the United States. Keith Johnson for The Wall Street Journal reports that this action comes in response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s opposition to current legislation.

Among the utilities banding together include New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group (NYSE: PEG), FPL (NYSE: FPL) and PNM Resources (NYSE: PNM). On top of that, some retailers have joined in, including The Gap (NYSE: GPS); Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and PG&E (NYSE: PCG) left the Chamber and Nike (NYSE: NKE) has quit the board.

Cassandra Sweet for The Wall Street Journal reports that the new group is formed by utility companies across the United States. The goal is for Congress to enact a strong climate-change  legislation, and as one CEO puts it, it’s not about just a few associations saying “stop this.” (10 ways to play Obama’s energy plan).

Today, 10 of the 12 Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee supported the measure to reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions through a cap-and-trade bill. Simon Lomax for Bloomberg reports that Senate Democrats won approval over Republicans, who feel the plan is being rushed.

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• iShares Dow Jones U.S. Utilities (NYSEArca: IDU): up 2% year-to-date;  PEG 3.6%; FPL 4.5%; PCG 3.6%

• Vanguard Utilities ETF (NYSEArca: VPU): up 0.9% year-to-date; FPL 5.2%; PCG 3.5%

• iShares S&P Global Utilities (JXI): down 1% year-to-date; FPL 2.3% FPL; PCG 1.7%

• PowerShares Dynamic Utilities (NYSEArca: PUI): down 4.9% year-to-date; FPL 4.6%

• iShares S&P Global Nuclear Energy Index (NYSEArca: NUCL): up 30.6% year-to-date; FPL 5%

• PowerShares Dynamic Retail (NYSEArca: PMR): up 20.8% year-to-date; GPS 5.7%

Tags: Energy, ETFs, IDU, JXI, NUCL, Nuclear, PMR, PUI, Retail, Sector ETFs, Utilities, VPU