Oct. 12-19, 2009
CAPP NEWS ROUNDUP
October 12, 2009 through October 19, 2009
Industry News
Oncor CEO: Electric deregulation ‘didn’t benefit customers’ in the short-run
By Elizabeth Souder
Dallas Morning News
October 14, 2009
This statement is all-too clear to most consumers, but energy executives and politicians normally defend deregulation of the Texas electricity markets. They calculate that if Texas were still regulated, consumers here would have paid more for power during the past few years than they did.
Energy Firms Find No Unity on Climate Bill
By John Broder, Jad Mouawad
New York Times
October 18, 2009
WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.
California and Texas: Renewable Energy’s Odd Couple
By Kate Galbraith
New York Times
October 18, 2009
In the absence of sustained federal action to support clean energy and fight climate change, Texas and California are serving as important policy laboratories. Now, as the United States Senate considers the best ways to accelerate the use of renewable technologies — with the full support of the Obama administration — lawmakers might do well to look at those states.
Drop in Natural-Gas Prices Deflates South Texas
By Jason Womack
Wall Street Journal
October 17, 2009
BEEVILLE, Texas -- The county clerk's office in this South Texas town was abuzz last year as natural-gas prospectors pored over property records, searching for the next place to sink a well. But things are much quieter now in the domed courthouse in the town square; natural-gas prices have plunged and energy companies have pulled way back on drilling, particularly in older gas fields like those that dot this part of the state.
Lone Star Energy: Why Texas Will Resist the Call for a Unified Grid
By Jennifer Bogo
Popular Mechanics
October 15, 2009
At first glance, a recent proposal to link the lower 48's three electrical grids—the Eastern, Western and Texas Interconnects—seems like a no-brainer (technological hurdles excepted). The Tres Amigas "superstation" proposed for Clovis, N.M., would extend the reach of renewable energy, finally allowing wind power from Kansas to flow to Colorado, or solar power from Arizona to reach Oklahoma. It would also let wind and solar energy from the blustery, blistering hot plains of West Texas flow across state lines. That is, if Texas buys into it—and given a long, profitable history of keeping energy in-state, they have a lot of reasons not to.
Texas Wind Power is Blowing in the Bucks
By Tom Fowler
Houston Chronicle
October 14, 2009
The economic downturn has had a bit of a silver lining for Texas' wind energy business. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Texas wind projects have received nearly $400 million in funding meant to stimulate the economy and create green jobs. That's 40 percent of the $1 billion given out so far.
CPS votes to lower share in nuclear plant
By Anton Caputo
San Antonio Express-News
October 14, 2009
CPS Energy's board unanimously agreed Tuesday to look for buyers for about half the utility's stake in the expansion of the nuclear South Texas Project, while borrowing $400 million more to continue plans to build the new reactors.