The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, aka ERCOT – the operator of the main electric grid in Texas, “expects adequate electricity resources to meet this summer’s peak use…” The expected peak demand this summer is 63,491 megawatts (MW), 1,731 MW lower than the last forecast made in December 2008, a reflection of the current economic [...]  More »

A bill aimed at providing up to $500 million in state incentives for the installation of home and business solar systems (on top of existing federal subsidies) averted death in the Texas Senate last night by getting attached to another bill. Sen. Troy Fraser was able to amend his bill, 545, to another related measure, [...]  More »

Many Houstonian would rather forget about the days they spent without power following Hurricane Ike last year, but CenterPoint Energy and the City of Houston don’t want you to. The local power and natural gas distribution company is underwriting a special hurricane preparedness event this Saturday at the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown from [...]  More »

We wrote about a proposed bill to help jump-start the Texas solar energy business the way the electric deregulation effort back in 1999 helped make wind power the force it is in Texas today. The bill we focused on, SB 545, is on life support due to the legislative log jam in the House, however, [...]  More »

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is something even casual observers of the energy business may have heard of — the large below-ground storage areas for crude oil spread throughout the Gulf Coast as an emergency back-up source. The reserve has a capacity of 727 million barrels and is currently close to that level with about 722 [...]  More »

Shares of NRG Energy are down about 20 percent in the seven months since Exelon announced it intends to buy out the smaller power generation rival. But Macquarie Research believes there’s more upside to NRG than the rest of Wall Street is giving it credit for and that it’s time for a change. In a [...]  More »

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the massive climate change bill last night with a vote of 33-25 to boos, cheers and polite, conditional applause. Here’s a sampling: On one extreme there’s Myron Ebell of the libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, who calls it “probably the most destructive bill ever passed out of [...]  More »

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave its stamp of approval on Exelon’s acquisition of NRG Energy. Now they just need shareholders and management to sign on and they’re all set. In a statement Exelon executive vice president, government and environmental affairs and public policy Elizabeth A. Moler said “the combination with NRG remains on track [...]  More »

Utility officials in 10 states sent a joint letter to Rep. Henry Waxman calling for a balance between climate change/energy policy moves and consumer prices (thanks to the folks at Bracewell for forwarding the letter). “The joint letter, signed by the public service commissioners in Ala., Ark., Ga., La., Miss., Mo., N.C., S.C. and W. [...]  More »

Austin-based Gulf Energy Exploration Corp. is turning to the Texas Legislature to get some relief in a bit of a dispute with the Texas Railroad Commission. Gulf Energy took over some orphaned wells off the coast of Calhoun County last year on state leases with the intent of going back in to restart production. It [...]  More »

Congressional Quarterly reports this week that there’s been a big jump in oil industry lobbying in the first quarter. Our Texas on the Potomoc blog had an entry on it too. In a nutshell “the oil and gas industry players spent $37.3 million to lobby the federal government in the first three months of this [...]  More »

The natural gas industry is teaming up to rally support against what it sees as an unnecessary hurdle for an essential tool in the recent natural gas production boom in the U.S. A bill by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would require companies to disclose the drilling chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing and subject [...]  More »