Sept. 28-Oct. 5, 2009
CAPP NEWS ROUNDUP
September 28, 2009 through October 5, 2009
Industry News
Editorial: Power customers deserve stronger consumer protections
Dallas Morning News
October 6, 2009
Don't count on state electricity regulators going to bat for you in disputes with power companies. In the past seven years, Texans have filed 54,356 complaints against electricity providers. Amazingly, the Public Utility Commission's staff has found rule violations in just 11 percent of those cases and has made only 34 attempts to seek sanctions. And while consumer complaints have doubled, the PUC's consumer protection staff is smaller today than it was seven years ago.
Texas’ oil and gas industry continues to be hammered by low commodity prices
Houston Business Journal
September 30, 2009
The Texas oil and gas industry continues to cancel drilling plans and lay off thousands of workers as producers adjust to lower commodity prices. The economic recession is being blamed for the downturn. While consumers benefit from lower crude prices in the form of less expensive gasoline, oil and gas producers are significantly impacted by lower priced crude oil and natural gas.
EPA proposes regulation of industrial greenhouse gases, with consequences for Texas
Austin American-Statesman
October 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed a rule that, for the first time, would require polluters to reduce greenhouse gases by installing the best available technology and improving energy efficiency whenever a facility is built or significantly changed. Nowhere would the regulation of greenhouse gases be more acutely felt than Texas, where petrochemical and industrial facilities, as well as large power plants, make the state the U.S. leader in carbon dioxide emissions.
Cutoffs, complaints abound with Texas’ prepaid electric customers
By Steve McGonigle, Ed Timms
Dallas Morning News
October 4, 2009
Freedom is a "prepaid" electric company, a type of subprime provider that emerged after Texas deregulated the retail power market in 2002. Unique to Texas, the prepaid companies charge customers in advance based on estimated usage. State officials tout vigilant consumer protection, especially for the needy, as fundamental to the deregulated electricity market. But as the Bailey case showed, the safety net has holes.
Low-income electric consumers’ fund used to help balance Texas budget
By Steve Mcgonigle, Ed Timms
Dallas Morning News
October 4, 2009
One of the key provisions of the law that deregulated the Texas retail electricity market was a state fund to subsidize charges to qualified low-income consumers. But a year after the law took effect, the Legislature began diverting much of the System Benefit Fund to help balance the state budget. Not even half of the $1.1 billion raised by surcharges to all Texans' electricity bills since 2002 has been spent.
$20 billion proposal outlined for renewable energy in S.A.
By Anton Caputo
San Antonio Express-News
October 2, 2009
Reshaping San Antonio into one of the world's leading cities for distributed and renewable energy would take $15 billion to $20 billion and a near-total buy-in from the community, according to a long-awaited report contracted by CPS Energy.
Growth of ‘Green Power’ Raises Questions
By Kate Galbraith
New York Times
October 2, 2009
The amount of “green power” sold by the country’s utilities rose by 34 percent in 2008, according to a report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released last month. But this type of power — representing less than 1 percent of the nation’s total electricity consumption, and most of it coming from wind turbines — is still more expensive than conventional power, half of which is generated by coal plants.
Austin can’t afford dirty energy
By Cyrus Reed
Austin American-Statesman
October 3, 2009
There's a healthy debate in Austin about where we are going to get our energy in the future, and how much of it should be clean energy. Some fear that Austin Energy's recommended plan to get about 35 percent of its energy from renewable resources will have a painful impact on those least able to afford higher energy rates as well as institutions that provide services to those people.
Nuclear expansion right call for S.A.
San Antonio Express-News
October 4, 2009
CPS customers pay rates that are routinely among the lowest of any major utility in the country. That's a key element in the Alamo City's affordability, lowering the cost of living for individuals and the cost of production for businesses. Keeping those rates low and steady is essential for the city's continued economic prosperity. For the foreseeable future, the best way to do so is for CPS to invest in a sensible expansion of nuclear generation at the South Texas Project in Bay City while aggressively pursuing efficiency and sustainability and positioning itself to take advantage of advances in green energy technology.