A few of the energy related stories in the Houston Chronicle or on chron.com : • House committee opens probe into BP blast plea deal: A congressional committee is investigating the government’s proposed criminal plea deal with BP stemming from the deadly 2005 Texas City refinery explosion, questioning whether the deal would protect workers or [...]  More »

Lately, the debate over climate change has swung heavily in favor of those who believe in it, that man-made pollution is putting the globe on the edge of calamity. From the apparent inevitability of federal climate change legislation to the parade of energy companies saying “the debate is over,” skeptics seem to have been on [...]  More »

A few of the energy related stories in the Houston Chronicle or on chron.com : • ‘It’s going to be a tough year,’ analysts predict: Perhaps it’s time to have that talk with the boss about telecommuting. • UH wants a focus on carbon trading: It may be several years before Congress passes laws regulating [...]  More »

There was a time when trading floors were a given part of most major energy real estate deals in Houston. Think of the massive, open-air trading floor Enron was building in its new office tower at the corner of Smith and Bell (actually four 53,000-square-foot trading floors). Not so anymore, according to an article at [...]  More »

A few of the energy related stories in the Houston Chronicle or on chron.com : • Oil pushes past $107; gasoline nearing records: Associated Press – Gasoline prices were poised today to set a new record at the pump nationally, having surged to within half a cent of their record high of $3.227 a gallon. [...]  More »

The planned natural gas pipeline will likely parallel the Trans Alaska oil Pipeline. (AP Photo/Al Grillo) Exxon Mobil said it “plans to be a co-owner” of a natural gas pipeline off Alaska’s North Slope if it is built by Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada. In public comments the company submitted as part of the State of [...]  More »

A few of the energy related stories in the Houston Chronicle or on chron.com today and over the weekend: • Texas poised to become regional hub for ethanol: Texas may be a latecomer to the ethanol business, but it is about to announce its arrival in a big way. • OSHA uncovers slew of refinery [...]  More »

The South Texas power plant today. Tomorrow (Saturday, March 8) will mark a unique milestone for the Texas power industry — the twenty year anniversary of the first sustained reaction of a nuclear power reactor in the state. At 5:08 a.m. on March 8, 1988 Unit 1 at the South Texas Project near Bay City [...]  More »

A few of the energy related stories in today’s Houston Chronicle or on chron.com (yeah, it’s a little slow today): • Texas gasoline prices reach record highs: Associated Press – Retail gasoline prices reached record heights in Texas this week, according to the weekly AAA Texas gasoline price survey released today. • Chevron to test [...]  More »

(Melissa Phillip/Chronicle) The Boston Globe ran a story today about how Houston-based KBR uses shell companies based in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying millions of dollars in U.S. Medicare and Social Security taxes (free registration required). “More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq – including about 10,500 Americans – are listed as [...]  More »

As expected, the Public Utility Commission is looking into the close call the Texas power grid had on Feb. 26. That was when an unexpected drop in wind power and a number of failures with conventional power plants brought the state close to rolling black-outs. PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said a report will likely be [...]  More »

A few of the energy related stories in today’s Houston Chronicle or on chron.com: • Finds in Gulf slump: New oil and natural gas discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico hit a 10-year low last year, but that doesn’t mean the region is running dry, analysts with research firm Wood Mackenzie said Wednesday. • Qatar [...]  More »