The bench trial over EnergySolutions’ planned $367 million acquisition of waste management rival Waste Control Specialists ended Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Senior Judge Sue Robinson indicated she intends to rule on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger ahead of her retirement next month, Law 360 reported.
The DOJ’s closing argument presentation, posted on the department’s website, focused the case federal attorneys made over the two-week trial: that Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions had seen Dallas-based WCS as a threat since 1999, and began buyout efforts in 2014 before sealing the deal in November 2015; that competition kept the companies’ prices down for their customers; that the merger would create a monopoly for disposal of U.S. low-level radioactive waste; and that U.S. law and legal rulings ban mergers that substantially reduce competition or produce monopolies.
Lawyer Van Beckwith, representing Waste Control Specialists, noted the company’s precarious financial situation in disputing the government’s case, Law 360 reported. The company’s losses have reached $130 million over the past half decade and it could accrue another $200 million in losses if its Andrews County, Texas, waste disposal complex remains open, he said. The merger is “the most value-preserving thing that can happen,” he told Robinson.
Waste Control Specialists cited financial pressures in asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month to temporarily suspend review of the company’s license application to build and operate a consolidated interim spent fuel storage facility. Management said it anticipates resuming the application after the deal with EnergySolutions is finalized, which it said should occur this summer.
The two companies have denied the Department of Justice’s assertion that the deal would deny competitive benefits to customers for low-level radioactive waste services in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. EnergySolutions attorney Tara Reinhart noted that Exelon, which operates the largest nuclear power fleet in the United States, testified in support of the merger, Law 360 reported.
