By staying out of deregulation, Longview residents save an average of 45 percent on their electricity bills, according to state Sen. Kevin Eltife. Speaking recently to Jimmy Isaac of the Longview News-Journal, the Tyler Republican said: “The consumers in East Texas are vitally interested in keeping costs down especially in these economic times – We believe the path toward deregulation runs contrary to that interest.”

     Here’s a little inside baseball for everybody who’s keeping score. During the last three sessions of the Texas Legislature, almost all major bills relating to electric service passed through the House Committee on Regulated Industries. But under plans for the new House under the leadership of incoming Speaker Joe Strauss, Regulated Industries will disappear and its duties split among five separate committees.

     Investors in so-called “clean coal” technology may soon have 300 million more reasons to start building in Texas. House Bill 469, filed late last month by state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, would provide up to $100 million in tax credits for the first three power plant construction projects to make use of integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, technology.