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March 11, 2010
Lead Stories
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 11, 2010
A GAME-CHANGER FOR A GREEN ECONOMY IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK
Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., may seem like unlikely role models for just about anyplace in Texas. Unless the subject is the green economy.
Those bastions of liberalism are among a handful of cities and counties that have embraced a new financing scheme that may be coming soon to a local government near you. It establishes a special taxing district that raises money, usually through bonds, and lends it to residents to buy solar panels, replace old windows and make other improvements in energy efficiency.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 10, 2010
SMU RESEARCHERS SAY INJECTION WELL IS 'PLAUSIBLE CAUSE' OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES BY D/FW AIRPORT
A team of university researchers has concluded there's likely a link between a series of small earthquakes at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and an injection well used to get rid of wastewater from natural gas drilling.
Chesapeake Energy, which owns the injection well in question, disputed that conclusion.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
ANALYSTS SAY CLIMATE PLANS COULD BENEFIT OIL PATCH
WASHINGTON — Congressional proposals to limit carbon dioxide and encourage technology to capture greenhouse gases could be a boon for both the environment and domestic oil producers, energy analysts said Wednesday.
House-passed climate change legislation would put new limits on carbon dioxide emissions nationwide, making it financially attractive to capture the gas. Senators are considering adding proposals to promote the rapid deployment of carbon capture and storage technology.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 10, 2010
RESTRICTIONS ON IN-CITY DRILLING PUT TO AN EARLY TEST
Midland's new drilling ordinance, which aims to oversee drilling activity within city limits, will soon be put to the test.
"Fasken Oil & Ranch will put it to the test in the next week or so because they say they plan to apply to drill within city limits," said City Councilman Scott Dufford. With oil prices holding above $80 a barrel and technology allowing producers to tap the 'Wolfberry' - commingle Spraberry and Wolfcamp production - Fasken will be the first in a line of producers wanting to drill, he told members of the Natural Gas Society of the Permian Basin on Wednesday. He said he has seen a number of maps with possible well locations and "there are a lot of wells that could be drilled on 80-acre spacing."
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CNBC
March 10, 2010
BRACE FOR ABOVE-NORMAL US HURRICANE SEASON
Five hurricanes, two or three of them major, are expected to strike the U.S. coast in what could be an above-average 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, private forecaster AccuWeather.com said Wednesday.
"The forecast is calling for a much more active 2010 season with above-normal threats on the U.S. coastline," AccuWeather.com said in a statement.
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Oil & Gas Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
ENERGY ANALYSTS PITCH CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION AS BOON FOR OIL
Congressional proposals to cap carbon dioxide and encourage new technology to capture greenhouse gas could be a boon for both the environment and domestic oil production, energy analysts said today.
At issue are nascent techniques for capturing the carbon dioxide that is released from smokestacks at coal-fired power plants and other facilities. Senators are working on climate change legislation that would cap carbon dioxide emissions nationwide and also are considering proposals to promote the rapid deployment of carbon capture and storage technology.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
PANELISTS AT CERAWEEK DISCUSS POSSIBLE DOWNSIDES TO NATURAL GAS
We've heard natural gas referred to as a "game changer" in the industry several times at CERAWeek. Panelists at several sessions, including G. Steven Farris of Apache, said nat gas was the greatest change to the industry they'd seen in 30 years.
But are there any downsides to natural gas?
Some panelists hinted at a few.
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Dallas Morning News
March 11, 2010
DENBURY RESOURCES REACHES DEAL ON NEW HEADQUARTERS AT WEST PLANO'S CAMPUS AT LEGACY COMPLEX
A day after shareholders approved a $4.5 billion merger, Plano's Denbury Resources Inc. has inked a huge new headquarters deal.
The energy company leased 325,000 square feet of office space in the Legacy business park.
The new facility will allow Denbury to accommodate more than 200 employees who will be moving as a result of its purchase of Fort Worth's Encore Acquisition Co.
The lease in the Campus at Legacy complex fills empty space that housed operations for Electronic Data Systems Corp. a few years ago. It's the biggest office transaction in North Texas this year.
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Oil Online
March 9, 2010
GABRIELLI: PRE-SALT SUPPLY CHAIN TIGHT
While operating in Brazil's pre-salt region does require an array of technologies, Petrobras CEO Jose Gabrielli told a Houston lunch that a bigger challenge lies in meeting logistical demands for operating in deep waters offshore. During the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce event on 9 March 2010, Gabrielli said it is important to focus on 'the hubs that we must develop for our people and goods 300km from our coastline.' For the pre-salt, he elaborated, 'the main challenge that we have is much more on logistics, on the optimization of the knowledge we have.'
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Dallas Morning News
March 11, 2010
STUDY LINKS DALLAS-AREA EARTHQUAKES, SALTWATER WELLS
From Randy Lee Loftis:
A study released today by university scientists in Dallas and Austin bolsters suspicions that a saltwater disposal well associated with Barnett Shale natural gas operations was responsible for several small earthquakes in North Texas.
The largest of the quakes measured 3.3 on the Richter scale, and no major injuries or damage were reported.
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Wall Street Journal
March 11, 2010
GAS-EXTRACTION LINK POSSIBLE IN QUAKES
One aspect of a natural-gas production technique could be the cause of small earthquakes around Fort Worth, Texas, in recent years, a new study has found.
Researchers said, though, that the vast majority of such new gas wells don't seem to lead to increased seismic activity.
The research began after a series of small tremors rattled the Fort Worth area on Oct. 31, 2008, the first significant seismic activity ever recorded there.
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CNBC
March 10, 2010
SAUDI ARAMCO CEO PREDICTS LESS VOLATILITY IN OIL PRICES
The CEO of the world's largest oil company says crude prices will remain steady and will not change dramatically in the months to come.
In an interview at the annual IHS CERA conference in Houston, Saudi Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih said, "The price range that we have seen recently—$70 to $80 (a barrel)—I believe has been supportive of new investment."
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Wall Street Journal
March 11, 2010
OFFSHORE BRAZIL BECKONS FOR BP
LONDON—British oil giant BP PLC said Thursday it bought into a diverse and broad deepwater exploration portfolio that includes assets off the shores of Brazil, Azerbaijan and the U.S., in a $7 billion deal with U.S. independent oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp.
The deal gives BP a greater footprint in two of its core areas—the Gulf of Mexico and the Caspian Sea—and its first entry into Brazil's prolific offshore basins.
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Business Wire
March 9, 2010
ANADARKO ANNOUNCES PRICING OF $750 MILLION OF SENIOR NOTES
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) today announced it has priced its registered public offering of $750 million 6.200% Senior Notes due 2040.
Anadarko expects to close the offering on March 16, 2010 and intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the purchase price for its cash tender offer for any and all 6.750% Senior Notes due 2011, originally issued by Anadarko Finance Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anadarko, and its partial cash tender offer for the 6.875% Notes due 2011 issued by Kerr-McGee Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anadarko, and 6.125% Notes due 2012 and 5.000% Notes due 2012 issued by Anadarko.
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New York Times
March 10, 2010
ALBERTA’S TAR SANDS AND THE DEAD DUCK TRIAL
In an Alberta court, the oil sands giant Syncrude Canada has entered the second week of a high-profile case brought by federal and provincial prosecutors over the widely publicized deaths two years ago of 1,600 migrating ducks that were trapped in the toxic sludge floating on one of the company’s vast tailings ponds.
Insisting that the failure of its bird-deterring air cannons doesn’t constitute a crime, Syncrude has pleaded not guilty.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
BP TO PAY $7 BILLION FOR DEVON RIGHTS IN GULF, BRAZIL
LONDON — Oil company BP PLC said today it will pay $7 billion to acquire exploration rights from US-based Devon Energy Corp. that will strengthen BP's dominant position in the Gulf of Mexico and give it access to a promising region off Brazil.
BP will buy the rights for 10 offshore exploration blocks in Brazil and a portfolio of rights in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and in the Caspian Sea.
BP said it is also selling, for $500 million, a 50 percent stake in its Kirby oil sands interests in Canada to Devon, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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Downstream Today
March 9, 2010
BUCKEYE LAUNCHES OPEN SEASON FOR MARCELLUS NGL PIPELINE
Buckeye Partners, L.P. announced Tuesday that it is currently holding a non-binding open season through March 31, 2010 for its previously announced Union Pipeline project.
The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus Basin in Pennsylvania to petrochemical plants in Sarnia, Ontario. The Union Pipeline would provide the ability for Marcellus area producers to sell NGLs to the market in the Sarnia area.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 10, 2010
U.S. SET TO DEPEND MORE ON SHALES FOR GAS, STUDY SAYS
HOUSTON -- Shale-gas fields such as the Barnett Shale in North Texas are a "game-changer," a "veritable shale gale" that could account for 50 percent of the U.S. gas supply by 2035, according to a study released Wednesday.
Shale gas now accounts for about 20 percent of the U.S. natural gas supply, up from just 1 percent in 2000, said Daniel Yergin, chairman of international energy consulting firm IHS CERA, which announced its study results at its CERA Week 2010 energy conference.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
GASOLINE WILL DOMINATE FOR A LONG WHILE, PANELISTS SAY
With no technology offering the perfect solution, automakers are pursuing a multipronged strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by improving fuel efficiency and developing cars that run longer and better from an array of energy options.
But most motorists still can expect regular trips to the gas pump for quite a while, industry representatives said Wednesday at the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates CERAWeek energy conference.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
OPEC SEES DEMAND GROWING 900,000 BARRELS A DAY
CAIRO, EGYPT — World oil demand is projected to grow by 900,000 barrels per day this year, OPEC said Wednesday, revising up its previous month's forecast while cautioning that the increase is hinged on a sustained global economic rebound, particularly in the United States.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, supplier of about 35 percent of the world's crude, raised its demand forecast to 85.24 million barrels per day, roughly 100,000 barrels per day higher than its February projections. It also said demand for OPEC crude was estimated at 29 million barrels a day — some 200,000 barrels per day more than its previous month's forecast — but noted that members were still overproducing.
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San Antonio Express News
March 10, 2010
ND OIL RIG COUNT TOPS 100
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The number of rigs piercing North Dakota's oil patch has topped 100 for the first time in nearly three decades, the state Department of Mineral Resources said Wednesday.
Department director Lynn Helms said 102 rigs were drilling in western North Dakota's oil patch on Wednesday - the first time since 1982 that the number of rigs in the state has hit the three-digit mark.
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Dallas Morning News
March 9, 2010
COAST GUARD BEGINS HEARING ON TEXAS OIL SPILL
The Coast Guard will begin its formal hearing into the circumstances of a collision of vessels in the Gulf Coast in January that caused the worst oil spill in Texas in 15 years.
The hearing will begin Tuesday with testimony from the crew of the Eagle Otome, an 800-foot tanker that collided Jan. 23 with a towboat pushing two barges. About 462,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the waters off of Port Arthur after the collision. Some 100 people were evacuated from their homes in the hours after the spill. It took more than 500 people several days to clean up.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
CERAWEEK GAS DAY: WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Reporters continued to bounce from conference sessions to one-on-one interviews with energy industry leaders at IHS CERAWeek today. Here are the highlights from some of our colleagues on Gas Day:
Reuters picked up on automakers lack of interest in nat gas as a power source for cars:
The 'game-changing' discovery of decades' worth of natural gas in U.S. shale formations has not changed auto-makers' minds about natural gas-power vehicles, which they said on Wednesday will remain a minor niche market.
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Big Spring Herald
March 10, 2010
LAWMAKERS, PRODUCERS BRAINSTORM FUTURE OF ENERGY INDUSTRY
Texans take pride in leading the nation in energy production. Maintaining that position, however, is going to take a lot of hard work.
That was the main message from Tuesday's West Texas Energy Summit, which brought together Texas legislators and energy production businessmen from across the Permian Basin at the Dora Roberts Community Center.
Producers and lawmakers shared ideas, information and predictions for the future of the energy industry during the summit, which was the brainchild of Texas Rep. Joe Heflin, Big Spring's representative in the state House of Representatives, and Ben Sheppard, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
STATOIL CEO AT CERAWEEK: NAT GAS' BENEFITS HAVE BEEN UNDER-COMMUNICATED
Statoil's Helge Lund gave the lunch keynote address today at IHS CERAWeek.
He started by noting that he had to make adjustments to his keynote after hearing the conference panelists speak again and again on gas.
"I thought this was an oil and gas conference, but I learned yesterday on Oil Day that it has developed into a gas conference, at least this year," Lund said to much laughter from the audience.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
CERAWEEK PANEL NOTES ONE BARRIER TO MARCELLUS DEVELOPMENT: LIQUIDS
The Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania, New York and other Northeastern states is a big reason the United States estimates for natural gas reserves have surged in recent years, as IHS CERA notes in its new study this morning.
There are plenty of barriers to developing the Marcellus, particularly the looming possibility of federal regulations over hydraulic fracturing and local community backlash. But another difficulty comes with a geologic fact about the Marcellus: It's wet. Not a rainy kind of wet, but rather the natural gas that comes out of the ground there is often heavy with natural gas liquids that have to be processed out before it can be shipped via interstate pipelines and used by consumers.
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CNBC
March 11, 2010
OIL STEADIES NEAR $82 ON CHINA INFLATION SPIKE
Oil steadied around $82 a barrel on Thursday but remained below an eight-week high hit a day earlier as a spike in Chinese inflation had investors mulling prospects of monetary tightening in the heart of energy demand growth. Expectations the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will pump well above production targets next quarter also weighed on sentiment, but falling gasoline inventories in the United States and the first signs of a recovery in demand in 18 months supported prices.
U.S. light, sweet crude for April was flat, after touching $83.03 on Wednesday, the highest level since oil's 15-month high of $83.95 on Jan. 11.
London ICE Brent crude was steady.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
SHALE MAY NOT BE AN EASY SELL IN EUROPE, CERAWEEK PANELIST SAYS
The "shale gale" that is ripping through the United States is being looked at in Europe with some anticipation.
The U.S. supply could free up more LNG shipments for European markets, helping to ease the pressure Russia can exert over some nations because of its supply dominance. And if Europe has its own shales, that link could be broken further.
But drilling for shale gas in Europe may not be as easy as one expects, warned Jean-Francois Cirelli, Vice Chairman and President of GDF SUEZ, in a question and answer session with reporters at IHS CERAWeek today.
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Houston Chronicle
March 11, 2010
CERAWEEK: WATER CONCERNS MEAN NEW STRATEGIES FOR ENERGY
It's Gas Day here at IHS CERAWeek, but one of the morning sessions today was all about water.
There has been some growing concern lately about the limitations of water resources and how they will affect the energy industry. Almost all energy processes involve large amounts of water from extraction to delivery. Extraction of natural gas from shale, which uses the hydraulic fracturing technique, is particularly water intensive.
The panelists at today's session noted that you can't talk about energy, from production to policies, without recognizing that water is an issue.
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CBS News
March 10, 2010
BODY OF MISSING OIL EXECUTIVE DOUGLAS SCHANTZ FOUND IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
NEW ORLEANS (CBS/AP) The body of missing Texas oil executive Doug Schantz was found in the Mississippi River Tuesday, officials said.
Schantz planned to meet his daughter at the New Orleans airport for an early flight back to Houston on March 5, but never showed up.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
CERA'S OFFICIAL WORD ON SHALE GAS: IT'S BIG
If you're attending CERAWeek and haven't yet caught the message that natural gas shales are a big deal you were probably napping. But just to make it clear, the IHS CERA folks are releasing their own study on shale today.
Some of the key findings will sound familiar:
•North American potential gas resources have more than doubled in the last three years to more than 3,000 trillion cubic feet, or enough for 100+ years of supply at current consumption.
•This could reduce the need for LNG imports into North America.
•Gas use in the power industry could double by 2035 and displace much of the coal-fired power production in the U.S., helping to meet aggressive carbon reduction goals in the next two decades.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 10, 2010
MIDAND COLLEGE GIVEN $1 MILLION TO TRAIN CHEVRON EMPLOYEES
Midland College has been awarded a federal Skills Development Funds grant of $934,704 to train current and future Chevron USA Inc. employees.
Director of Workforce Continuing Education Lyndolyn Pervier said the grant start date was Feb. 1 and runs through June 30, 2011. Pervier said a contract has not yet been signed, but will train 33 new employees and 290 existing workers during that period.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
SCHLUMBERGER SHOPPING SPREE CONTINUES WITH PURCHASE OF NEXUS GEOSCIENCES
Schlumberger said today it has acquired Houston-based seismic software and services firm Nexus Geosciences, a purchase that continues to add heft to the world's largest oil field services company.
The firm will become part of WesternGeco, Schlumberger's geophysical services unit. Schlumberger did not say how much it paid for Nexus Geosciences.
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Utilities Stories
The Hill
March 10, 2010
NRG WINS ENERGY DEPARTMENT GRANT
NRG Energy will get $154 million from the Energy Department for a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Tuesday. NRG will match the amount of investment.
The project will demonstrate technology to reduce greenhouse gases and assist in oil recovery efforts in a nearby oil field. With carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide is captured from a power plant and directed and stored underground to prevent its release into the atmosphere.
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Dallas Morning News
March 10, 2010
NRG ENERGY TO GET UP TO $154M FROM GOVERNMENT TO INSTALL CARBON DIOXIDE CAPTURE SYSTEM
NRG Energy Inc. won up to $154 million in funding from the Department of Energy to install a system to capture carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant.
The building plans fit with NRG's view that carbon dioxide emissions will eventually be regulated. And the award comes as NRG has ramped up its lobbying presence in Washington since signing onto a campaign to pass comprehensive climate-change legislation.
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Wall Street Journal
March 11, 2010
GOA CARBON TO FINALIZE CHINA PARTNER
MUMBAI -- India's Goa Carbon Ltd. has short listed two companies for building a joint-venture plant to produce calcined petroleum coke in China and expects to finalize an agreement by the middle of April, its chairman said.
The company is looking to start building the facility in the first half of the next fiscal year starting April 1, Shrinivas Dempo told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview.
The plant is expected to cost two billion rupees ($44 million) and its first phase will have a capacity of 250,000 tons a year, he added.
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Business Wire
March 9, 2010
FLUOR & B&W FORM ALLIANCE TO MARKET CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY
IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fluor Corporation and Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), an operating unit of The Babcock & Wilcox Company, have formed a strategic alliance with Fluor’s Power Group to market and sell carbon dioxide (CO2) capture systems for existing coal-fired power plants in the United States and Canada.
Fluor and B&W will jointly market and provide project execution for Fluor’s Econamine FG PlusSM technology – an advanced version of an established Fluor process that has been successfully used in 23 commercial plants for the recovery of CO2 from flue gas for more than 20 years. The process uses an advanced amine-based solvent to capture CO2, which then can be permanently stored or used in other industrial applications.
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New York Times
March 10, 2010
LOS ANGELES ELECTRIC RATE LINKED TO SOLAR POWER
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a year, and it often seems as if environmentalists outnumber rattlesnakes in many parts of the sprawling city. It would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here.
But that has never been the case, and experts cite cost as the main reason.
Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the United States, is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on electricity use.
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San Antonio Express News
March 11, 2010
VIEWPOINT: CITY AND CPS ENERGY LAUNCH WEATHERIZATION PROGRAM
On the heels of a hot summer and a cold, wet winter, many Bexar County residents feel the impact of extreme temperatures, not just because we spend a lot of time outside, but because many of us do not have well-insulated homes.
For too many of us, the weather outside feels no different from the inside of our homes. However, this issue is far more serious than just the comfort-level of our homes.
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USA Today
March 10, 2010
CLEAN COAL? OBAMA FUNDS RESEARCH TO CAPTURE CARBON
Can coal really be clean? Environmentalists may be skeptical, but President Obama is moving ahead with efforts to create non-polluting coal.
On Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced that it will give up to $154 million to NRG Energy, a Texas-based company, to create a facility that will capture coal's carbon and store it underground, thereby reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. It's one of several such federally funded coal projects.
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Wall Street Journal
March 11, 2010
RUSSIA WILLING TO BUILD MORE NUCLEAR PLANTS IN INDIA
NEW DELHI -- Russia is willing to build nuclear power plants of up to 15,000 megawatts over the next 10 years in India, the Russian ambassador to the South Asian nation said Wednesday.
"The talks on setting up nuclear plants in India are in their initial stage," Alexander Kadakin told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of an India-Russia business event.
"We are prepared to start construction of nuclear plants in India, whenever India is prepared," he said.
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The Hill
March 10, 2010
MEMBERS INTRODUCE RURAL UTILITY LOAN BILL DESIGNED TO SPUR ENERGY EFFICIENCY EFFORTS
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill today to provide homeowners and businesses with low-interest loans to make energy efficiency improvements to cut their energy use.
The measure would grant $4.9 billion in loan authority to the Rural Utilities Services, which finances rural electric utilities. The RUS loans to the electric co-ops would be zero percent interest, and given on the condition that the co-ops would in turn make low-interest loans to their customers for things like installing insulation, replacing old heating and cooling systems and repairing leaky roofs.
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New York Times
March 11, 2010
CALIFORNIA UTILITY REGULATORS NOT QUITE READY FOR FUEL CELLS
While Google, Wal-Mart and other corporations have embraced fuel cells, California regulators have turned down requests from the state’s two biggest utilities to install the technology.
In a preliminary decision, an administrative law judge with the California Public Utilities Commission found unwarranted an application from Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California to spend more than $43 million to install fuel cells that would generate six megawatts of electricity.
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Alternatives & Renewables Stories
Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 10, 2010
DEVELOPMENT OF WIND ENERGY TRANSMISSION LINES IMPORTANT, DIFFICULT, SPEAKERS SAY
Creating additional transmission lines for wind energy in northern and western Texas is vital not only to the development of the industry, but also to the state's future economy, speakers at a Permian Basin Petroleum Meeting said Tuesday.
However, several state representatives said, working through issues of land acquisition and environmental impact that are cropping up as construction of transmission lines begins in the state's five Competitive Renewable Energy Zones will be a challenge.
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New York Times
March 10, 2010
DEVELOPERS LAMENT LOSS OF FEDERAL WIND SUBSIDIES IN CANADA
The Canadian Wind Energy Association is expressing disappointment with the federal government’s recent decision not to expand or extend the so-called ecoEnergy program — which delivered subsidies to renewable energy developers — in its new budget.
According to the association, the program has been a success, and without it, Canada’s ability to compete with American developers in the renewables sector is jeopardized.
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Bloomberg
March 11, 2010
SOLAR PROSPECTORS CHASE ITALIAN, ISRAELI ‘GOLD MINES’
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Olivier de Vergnies quit managing family fortunes at Dexia Private Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. in 2008 to run a New York start-up at 100 Wall St. that’s trying to tap riches in solar energy.
The chief executive officer of two-year-old Prime Sun Power Inc. is hiring hundreds of workers to build solar plants in Italy, where he can sell electricity for about six times the price paid to coal- and natural gas-fired generators.
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San Angelo Current
March 11, 2010
SAN ANTONIO’S WOULDA-BEEN-GROUNDBREAKING SOLAR PACE PROGRAM ON THE ROCKS
Thirty-nine percent of San Antonians are ready to install solar panels and solar hot-water heaters on their rooftops, according to a survey performed last year for the non-profit clean-energy-advocating Solar San Antonio. That is, they’re ready to go solar — if they could afford it.
Even with the on-and-off-again solar rebates offered through City-owned CPS Energy (now on again), solar remains a game largely reserved for wealthier greens. Homeowners must shell out thousands of dollars for even the smallest rooftop arrays, a daunting challenge in very un-affluent San Antonio. However, a bill carried through the Texas Legislature last year promised to eliminate all up-front costs by allowing Texas cities to float the loans themselves, receive payment through the accumulated energy savings realized, and lighten the load on homeowners by tying the loan to the property itself rather than to the individual.
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Bloomberg
March 11, 2010
CHINA IDLES 40% OF WINDPOWER TURBINE OUTPUT CAPACITY
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- China is idling as much as 40 percent of its wind-turbine factories following a surge in investment driven by the government’s renewable-energy goals, the vice president of Shanghai Electric Group Corp. said.
Prices of turbines have tumbled more than 30 percent from 2004 levels in the world’s third-biggest windpower market by generating capacity because there are “too many” plants, Lu Yachen said in an interview in Beijing today.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
AUTOMAKERS AT CERAWEEK PLAN TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGIES, IMPROVE THE OLD
Deciding which direction to take to reduce greenhouse gases is a challenge for automakers, representatives of the automotive industry said at IHS CERAWeek today.
Among their options are improving fuel efficiency and developing vehicles that run longer and better on energy options such as hydrogen, electricity and ethanol, panelists said in a discussion about the future of sustainable transportation.
But changing regulatory trends, consumer demand and new technologies make for a complex obstacle course car makers must navigate, they said.
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Bloomberg
March 11, 2010
BATTERY VENTURES COMPLETES $750 MILLION FUND, YEAR’S BIGGEST
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Battery Ventures completed a $750 million venture-capital fund, the biggest so far this year, raising money to invest in computing startups and clean-energy deals.
Battery, which previously backed Web content-delivery company Akamai Technologies Inc. and mobile-phone carrier MetroPCS Communications Inc., will split the funds between early-stage startups and more mature companies that plan to do buyouts or need money in lieu of an initial public offering, Managing General Partner Tom Crotty said.
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Regulatory Stories
The Hill
March 10, 2010
GOP GOVS TO CONGRESS: BLOCK EPA CLIMATE RULES
A mostly Republican group of 20 state and territorial governors is urging Congress to block EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
A letter Wednesday from the governors – 18 Republicans and two Democrats – to House and Senate leaders alleges that planned EPA rules to limit heat-trapping emissions would harm their state economies.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
SENATE APPROVES BILL THAT INCLUDES BIODIESEL CREDIT
The U.S. Senate approved a bill that extends the $1-a-gallon tax credit for biodiesel, which expired Dec. 31.
The credit was included in a $138 billion measure that would extend unemployment benefits and provide more aid to states in an effort to boost the economy. The biodiesel industry says the tax credit is needed to revive production.
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The Hill
March 10, 2010
LEVIN: CLIMATE BILL MUST TAKE GO-SLOW APPROACH WITH FACTORIES, BLOCK STATE TAILPIPE RULES
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has provided Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) a wish list of items for climate change legislation that includes a lengthy delay before greenhouse gas limits are imposed on industrial facilities.
Levin is a pivotal voice on climate policy. His state includes Detroit automakers and other manufacturing interests that fear the costs of climate legislation and its effects on their competitiveness.
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Dallas Morning News
March 11, 2010
SHOULD THE U.S. SUBSIDIZE GREEN INVESTMENTS THAT CREATE JOBS OVERSEAS?
The "Chinese" West Texas wind farm kicked off the debate about whether the stimulus is subsidizing green jobs overseas. At least initially, the project's Dallas- and Austin-based developers and investors said the wind turbines would come from China, while Chinese banks would finance the project. The project's owners would receive about $450 million if they pursue a stimulus grant available to them.
Now, two advocacy groups have issued a report that says the Treasury Department has rewarded other companies that appear to make most of their clean-energy goods overseas.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
EXXONMOBIL AT CERAWEEK: ENERGY POLICY WILL MAKE NATURAL GAS MORE IMPORTANT
A key driver for gas demand is power generation, Tom Walters, president of ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing, said at the IHS CERAWeek Global Gas Plenary this morning. With new policies looking at CO2 emissions, natural gas will emerge as a clear winner, he said.
Natural gas is the most economical solution for power plants when carbon cost is considered, Walters said.
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Wall Street Journal
March 11, 2010
CHINA CLIMATE CHIEF CRITICIZES U.S.
BEIJING—China's chief climate official called for the U.S to do more in providing financing and technology in the global fight against climate change, as international negotiators struggle to find a mutually acceptable way of tackling the problem.
The comments came after U.S President Barack Obama made little progress Tuesday in drawing up a U.S. climate-change initiative and ways to limit future greenhouse gas emissions that will gain acceptance across the domestic political spectrum.
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The Hill
March 10, 2010
AARP PREFERS CANTWELL-COLLINS CLIMATE BILL
The AARP, the powerful senior’s lobby, likes Cantwell-Collins approach to climate change.
The group sent a letter to Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday calling their so-called cap-and-dividend approach to climate legislation a “thoughtful, bipartisan approach” that reduces carbon dioxide emissions but also protects consumers.
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Bloomberg
March 11, 2010
JAPANESE CAP-AND-TRADE BILL HEADED TO WIN BACKING FROM CABINET
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s Cabinet will endorse a climate-protection draft law tomorrow that would cap industrial emissions for the first time and thrust the second-biggest economy into the $125 billion market for trading carbon credits.
A group of unspecified polluters could buy and sell permits for releasing greenhouse gases under the plan, while several companies may get a ceiling per unit of production, Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa told reporters today after a Cabinet committee met to complete the bill in Tokyo.
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The Hill
March 10, 2010
LUGAR SEEKS ‘PRACTICAL’ ENERGY PLAN
The White House is courting Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) as it pushes for broad climate change and energy legislation, but Lugar signaled this week that he’s just not that into the carbon capping part, at least for now.
Lugar on Tuesday circulated an outline of what he called “practical” legislation that contains steps to curb oil use and boost alternative energy that steers clear of mandatory greenhouse gas limits.
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March 10, 2010
Lead Stories
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 9, 2010
FORT WORTH RESIDENTS OBJECT AS CITY APPROVES AIR-TEST PANEL
FORT WORTH -- For months, state regulators, neighborhood groups and the natural gas industry have gone back and forth about the level of air pollution produced by natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale.
The industry has maintained that drilling is generally safe. State officials have sent mixed messages, which prompted Fort Worth officials to pay for their own tests.
But now, even that effort has bogged down. The City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday to appoint a committee to choose the contractor for the tests, only to be met with protests from neighborhood groups that think the committee designing the study has too much input from the gas industry.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
REFINERS SAY THEY'RE IN A BIND ON CAPACITY
The global refining picture remains bleak even amid a fledgling economic recovery, and the only short-term remedy is to continue reducing refining capacity, executives from some of the world's leading refining companies said Tuesday.
With the sector expecting refining margins to improve only slightly this year, Bill Klesse, CEO of San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp., showed a photo of a half-plucked and shellshocked rooster in full strut.
“No matter how badly refining treated you last year — just walk tall with your head held up high,” Klesse said to laughs during the Downstream Oil Plenary at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. “We're trying to make sure it's not road kill this year.”
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Dallas Morning News
March 9, 2010
SOUDER: ELECTRIC DEREGULATION FOUNDER MIGHT BE BACK
Former Sen. David Sibley, one of the founders of electricity deregulation in Texas, might run for his old seat, representing Waco.
Christie Hoppe writes on the Trailblazers blog:
Lobbyist David Sibley, the former state senator who Kip Averitt replaced, isn't exactly beating back speculation that he might be interested in the spot. Averitt said, as explained in an earlier post, that he will resign his seat because of health reasons. Sibley, a lawyer and an oral surgeon, is also a former mayor of Waco.
Here's Sibley's statement:
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New York Times
March 10, 2010
THE LITHIUM CHASE
For many years, few metals drew bigger yawns from mining executives than lithium, a lightweight element long associated mostly with mood-stabilizing drugs. Suddenly, the yawns are being replaced by eurekas. As awareness spreads that lithium is a crucial ingredient for hybrid and electric cars, a global hunt is under way for new supplies of the metal.
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Oil & Gas Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
CHEVRON TO ELIMINATE 2,000 JOBS IN REFINING AND MARKETING
Chevron Corp. will cut 2,000 refining and marketing jobs worldwide and plans to sell its refinery in England to deal with the recession's effects on gasoline sales, company executives said Tuesday.
Chevron representatives on Tuesday would not say how many jobs could be lost at the company's San Ramon, Calif., headquarters or its offices in Houston. Severance packages will cost an estimated $150??million to $200??million in the year's first quarter.
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China Daily
March 8, 2010
CNPC SEES CHINA OIL OUTPUT UP 1-2% IN 2010
China's crude oil output will rise by 1-2 percent this year, Yu Baocai, vice president of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), said on Sunday.
The forecast is slightly below a previous estimate of 2 percent given in a CNPC research report but above the 0.5 percent growth target issued by China's planning ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission, in its 2010 economic plan.
Last year, oil output fell 0.4 percent to 189.49 million tons, or 3.79 million barrels per day, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
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Houston Chronicle
March 10, 2010
HALLIBURTON SAYS NO NEED TO MERGE DESPITE PENDING DEALS
Halliburton Co., the world's second-largest oil field-services provider, said it doesn't feel the need to make a major acquisition after two of its top rivals announced takeovers.
“We feel no compulsion to go out and do any large transaction,” Tim Probert, president of global business lines and corporate development at Halliburton, said in an interview today in Houston.
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Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010
SHELL STOPS GAS SALES TO IRAN
LONDON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday it is no longer selling gasoline to Iran, the latest oil company to make such a move during threats of tougher sanctions against the Islamic republic.
"Shell is not currently selling gasoline to Iran," a company spokesman said. He declined to comment on whether it was related to sanctions against Iran.
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New Orleans Times-Picayune
March 9, 2010
NEW ORLEANS NEWS REPORT SAYS BODY FOUND IN MISSISSIPPI MAY BE HOUSTON ENERGY EXEC
A body found under the dock near the Natchez river boat about 12:15 p.m. appears to be that of missing Houston businessman Douglas Schantz.
The New Orleans Police Department reported earlier that the search for Douglas Schantz, the missing oil executive from Houston, had shifted to the Mississippi River
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CNBC
March 9, 2010
BULL MARKET LEAVES EXXON MOBIL LAGGING BEHIND
Exxon Mobil, the biggest publicly traded company on the globe, is up a meager 3 percent since the S&P 500 hit a 12-year bottom one year ago. The stock is badly trailing its own industry as well, with an index of energy stocks in the S&P 50 up about 40 percent. The commodity Exxon peddles has surged more than 70 percent in 12 months.
"Money managers want a high beta energy play when oil starts to take off,” said Joe Terranova, Chief Market Strategist at Virtus Investment Partners. “It’s become a defensive energy name where investors hide out.”
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
ON ‘OIL DAY,' MOST SEE A FUTURE IN FOSSIL FUELS
While most in the energy business agree the worst of the recession has passed, differing views emerged Tuesday at CERAWeek 2010 about where the industry should focus its efforts in the years ahead.
On one side was the oil and gas industry, which said fossil fuels will be the dominant energy source for decades and that improving technology and abundant natural gas supplies hold the potential to extend that life further.
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Business 24/7
March 8, 2010
GULF BRACES FOR HUGE PETROCHEMICALS EXPANSION
The Gulf is undergoing massive capacity expansion in petrochemicals and will soon account for a lion's share of world's ethylene production, investment bank Alpen Capital has said in its new report.
A growing shortage of ethane besides delay and cancellation of projects are two factors adversely impacting the petrochemical sector in the region, the report said.
"Some petrochemicals projects [in the Gulf] are behind schedule due to delays in project funding, feedstock shortages and subdued demand. Projects in the region may face delays of around one year on average. Moreover, if the global economic situation worsens, delays could prolong further, although it is unlikely that projects will be shelved," the Dubai-based investment bank said.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
SOLAR INDUSTRY LEARNS LESSONS IN SPANISH SUN
In an Alberta court, the oil sands giant Syncrude Canada has entered the second week of a high-profile case brought by federal and provincial prosecutors over the widely publicized deaths two years ago of 1,600 birds that were trapped in the toxic sludge floating on one of the firm’s vast tailings ponds.
Insisting that the failure of its bird-deterring air cannons doesn’t constitute a crime, Syncrude has pleaded not guilty.
Some Alberta pundits have described the case, expected to last for up to six weeks, as a “show trial.” Others are wondering why the company seems so determined to defend itself in such a public forum.
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Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010
CNOOC,TOTAL TO BUY PART OF TULLOW'S UGANDA ASSETS
LONDON—China's Cnooc Ltd. and French oil major Total SA are each expected to acquire a third of Tullow Oil PLC's oil assets in Uganda, Tullow said in a statement Wednesday.
Both companies have recently made presentations to the Ugandan authorities and Tullow said it expects these transactions and Tullow's purchase of Heritage Oil PLC's Uganda assets to be signed in the coming weeks. "This will result in a unified partnership with considerable experience and financial capability to enable Uganda to become a significant oil producing nation," it said.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
BP EXPANDS HOUSTON'S ROLE AS IT CENTRALIZES OPERATIONS
British oil giant BP has quietly elevated the role of Houston in its far-flung global business as it seeks to build on gains made during a turnaround in recent years.
British oil giant BP has quietly elevated the role of Houston in its far-flung global business as it seeks to build on gains made during a turnaround in recent years.
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San Antonio Express News
March 10, 2010
CHEVRON REFINERY IN WALES CONSIDERED BY VALERO
Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. independent refiner, will consider buying the Pembroke refinery in Wales that Chevron Corp. says it plans to sell, Valero CEO Bill Klesse said Tuesday.
San Antonio-based Valero has been interested in expanding in the European refinery market. The company signed an agreement to acquire Dow Chemical's stake in the Vlissingen refinery in the Netherlands before Total S.A., the owner of the remainder of the plant, pre-empted the deal in June.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 9, 2010
DENBURY RESOURCES TO CLOSE ENCORE ACQUISITION'S FORT WORTH OFFICES AFTER MERGER
Denbury Resources plans to offer most Encore Acquisition Co. employees a transfer to Plano and will eventually close Encore's downtown Fort Worth headquarters, a Denbury spokeswoman said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, shareholders approved the $4.5 billion merger of the oil and gas companies, which was announced Nov. 1.
Encore has about 400 employees, including 225 in Fort Worth.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
OPEC RAISES 2010 OIL DEMAND FORECAST
CAIRO — OPEC has raised its projections for oil demand growth this year by 100,000 barrels per day, but stresses that gains could be eroded if the U.S. government scales back on stimulus efforts before the country's economy fully recovers.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a report released Wednesday that world oil demand was projected to climb to almost 900,000 barrels per day, or 100,000 barrels a day more than its February projection.
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Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010
OIL CHIEF WARNS OF 'GREEN BUBBLES'
HOUSTON—The chief executive of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world's largest crude producer, warned that enthusiasm for alternative energy could engender "green bubbles" as the new technologies "overpromise but then underdeliver."
Still, Chief Executive Khalid Al-Falih also said he was optimistic about the long-term prospect of renewable fuels. He singled out solar energy for praise, and detailed plans for modest investments in the sector.
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Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010
ESSAR IN TALKS WITH SHELL TO BUY REFINERIES
MUMBAI -- India's Essar Oil Ltd. Wednesday said it is still in talks with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to buy three refineries in Europe, dismissing a local media report that the two companies had put the negotiations on the back burner.
"Shell and Essar can confirm that they are still in negotiations around the possible sale and purchase of Shell's three refineries at Stanlow in the U.K., and Heide and Harburg in Germany," Essar spokesman Manish Kedia told Dow Jones Newswires.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS PLANNED FEES ON DOMESTIC DRILLING
Sen. Bob Bennett today insisted that the Obama administration study the long-term costs of its plans to impose new fees on drilling leases and hike royalty rates for companies that produce oil and natural gas from public lands.
The Republican from Utah said the proposals would hurt U.S. jobs tied to the oil and gas industry and trim the revenues the federal government collects in taxes and royalties from domestic energy production.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
PETROBRAS TO UPGRADE LOCAL REFINERY
bras is making plans to upgrade its oil refinery in Pasadena, Orlando Azevedo, head of the U.S. unit of Brazil's state-owned oil company, said today at IHS CERAWeek. Petrobras is working with engineering and construction giant Fluor in Sugar Land on a study, expected in September, that will lay plans for the project, he said.
The project, slated to be completed by 2014, will not add to the facility's 100,000 barrel-per-day fuel-making capacity. Rather, it will enable it to run cheaper heavy crudes, he said. An investment figure was unspecified.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
TERRORISTS' SCOPE INCLUDES OIL THIEVES AND 'CRUEL BEAST OF CAPITALISM'
The energy sector remains an attractive target to terrorists whose goal has been to bleed oil companies to bankruptcy and disrupt the flow of oil to global markets by lodging attacks on pipelines, refineries and other oil and gas infrastructure around the world. But audience members at a panel on international security and country risk this morning at IHS CERAWeek learned they also were in the scope of Osama bin Laden.
Reading from a January missive issued by bin Laden, panelist Tim Pippard, a consultant with IHS Jane's, said:
"The world is held hostage by major corporations which are pushing it to the brink. World politics are not governed by reason, but by the force and greed of oil thieves and war mongers and the cruel beast of capitalism in Washington, New York and Texas."
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
TUDOR PICKERING LOWERS THEIR NAT GAS NUMBER
When the guys at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. talk about natural gas people listen. That's why their note this morning they have lowered their price outlook for natural gas down significantly could turn some heads.
The firm is lowering the 2010 price from $7.50/mcf to $6.20/mcf, a refleciton of first quarter prices averaging about $5.30/mcf and rig count growth that has been stronger than anticipated.
In our Gas Supply Study (August 2009), we assumed gas price would have to increase above our long term $6.50/mcf level to encourage increased drilling activity. We could not have been more wrong as rig count ramped amid $4.50/mcf average prices since May '09. RigData shows gas-directed rig count is up 402 (+55%) rigs since late May'09. Horizontal gas-directed drilling (shales!) increased 259 rigs (+75%) and is now higher than 580 rig peak in Oct'08.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
CERAWEEK: SERVICE INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ATTRACT AND KEEP SKILLED LABOR
There is a shortage of skilled labor in the industry. That was the consensus today at an IHS CERAWeek panel of service industry folks, who discussed how to ensure capacity in the supply chain.
During the recession, a good number of the workforce was laid off and much of the current workforce is close to retirement, said Pride International chief Louis Raspino.
Raspino said that the industry hasn't done a good job of keeping labor in the down cycles, which makes it difficult to attract people in the up cycles.
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Utilities Stories
New York Times
March 9, 2010
A ROUGH ROLLOUT FOR SMART METERS IN TEXAS
So-called “smart” electric meters, heralded as vital for an energy-conscious era, are having a rough rollout in Texas.
The devices, which enable utilities to vary their rates according to the time of day, allow consumers to save money — in theory. But according to The Dallas Morning News, hundreds of Texas customers have called to complain that the meters, which are being installed by a Dallas-based electric company called Oncor, are inaccurately raising their electric bills.
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Dallas Morning News
March 9, 2010
ONCOR BEGINS SMART METER ACCURACY TESTING IN OAK CLIFF
Oncor continued its effortson Tuesday to convince North Texans that smart meters are working. The company gathered reporters and TV cameras at an Oak Cliff home where Oncor had reinstalled an old mechanical meter beside a new digital smart meter.
Both meters will record usage for the home, allowing Oncor to see whether the smart meter is working. Oncor will do about three dozen side-by-side tests around North and Central Texas.
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Financial Times
March 8, 2010
ENERGY INVESTMENT AT RISK, REPORT WARNS
Up to £50bn of investment in energy infrastructure needed to secure power supplies is at risk from uncertainty over regulation after the election, a report backed by a leading energy supplier has warned.
Ernst & Young, the professional services firm, says that in the next three years energy companies must commit to £35bn-£50bn of investment in power stations, wind farms and gas storage to hit government objectives for cutting carbon dioxide emissions while guaranteeing reliable electricity supplies.
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New York Times
March 10, 2010
CALIFORNIA TO REGULATE ‘MOST POTENT’ GREENHOUSE GAS
Starting in 2011, California will regulate emissions from electric utility equipment of the gas sulfur hexafluoride — commonly called SF6. It is typically used in high voltage transmission systems in circuit breakers, switches and insulation, according to a recent California Air Resources Board announcement.
“Although it is only used in small amounts, sulfur hexafluoride is the most potent of all the gases that cause global warming,” the Air Resources Board’s chairwoman, Mary D. Nichols, said in the announcement.
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Dallas Morning News
March 9, 2010
NRG GETS FEDERAL MONEY TO BUILD CARBON DIOXIDE CAPTURE PLANT
NRG Energy Inc. won up to $154 million in funding from the Department of Energy to install a system to capture carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant.
NRG plans to install the equipment at its WA Parish plant, near Houston, and to begin operating the unit in 2013. The DOE funding would pay for up to half of the installation.
The company plans to sell the carbon dioxide to oil companies to inject into aging oil fields to boost production.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
DEBATING THE NUCLEAR WASTE PROBLEM
With Nevada’s Yucca Mountain facility apparently out of the picture as a nuclear waste repository, government nuclear experts say interim measures might be needed for a very long time. In a speech Tuesday delivered to about 2,700 industry executives, nuclear regulators and other experts gathered for a nuclear energy conference in Washington, Gregory B. Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that his agency needed to determine just how many centuries such fuel can be safely stored above ground, and that it should come up with a policy that would not require amendment for many years.
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CNBC
March 9, 2010
COAL FIRM SEES UPSIDE OPTIONS ON POTENTIAL TAKEOVERS
Arch Coal drew upside call action yesterday as the industry continued to receive news ranging from potential takeovers to heightened demand.
The option activity was dominated by a single trade of 7,000 April 25 calls bought for $1.15, according to OptionMonster's proprietary tracking systems. The transaction was more than twice the open interest of 3,042 contracts and dwarfed the average volume of just 164 calls per day at that strike.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
DROUGHT HAS VENEZUELA LOOKING AT ALTERNATIVES TO HYDROPOWER
A severe drought in Venezuela appears to be pushing the country’s president, Hugo Chávez, to ramp up efforts to diversify the country’s energy portfolio.
Up to now, hydropower has been the major energy source in Venezuela — providing residents and industry with up to two-thirds of the total electricity produced. But a record lack of rainfall has resulted in low water flows and several power interruptions — as well as angry recriminations of the government from some Venezuelans ahead of upcoming legislative elections scheduled for September.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
CONGO DAM PROJECTS EVOLVE AND DRAW CRITICS
BHP Billiton, the Australian company that is one of the world’s largest mining companies, appears set to build a $3.5 billion hydroelectric plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo to power a $5 billion aluminum smelter.
Details of a presentation revealing plans to generate 2,500 megawatts from the Congo River were reported last week by Reuters.
“Even despite the global economic crisis, BHP Billiton always considered its aluminum smelter project in D.R.C. a priority,” the presentation stated, according to the news agency.
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Alternatives & Renewables Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
CERAWEEK: EXPECTING TOO MUCH TOO SOON FROM BIOFUELS?
Amid the clamor to quickly sub out oil and gas with liquid fuels from renewable sources, do people miscalculate the enormity of the endeavor?
Jeffrey Jacobs, vice president of Chevron Technology Ventures, who spoke on a biofuels panel today at the IHS CERAWeek conference in downtown Houston, seems to think so.
"Many folks outside of our industry underestimate the scale and complexity of our business and the volumes at which we deliver energy products around the world," Jacobs said. "We represent the world's largest supply chain and behind that is a significant amount of capital investment and technology that must be maintained."
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Dallas Morning News
March 9, 2010
NO WAITING IN LINE FOR NATURAL GAS TAXIS
Cabs fueled by compressed natural gas could skip the line at Love Field if all goes according to plan at Dallas City Hall tomorrow. The City Council is poised to pass an ordinance that would grant CNG taxis head-of-the-line privileges at the Dallas airport.
The council's briefing materials note that this is part of the region's efforts to reduce ozone and comply with federal air quality standards. The natural-gas-powered cabs spew significantly less carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides -- key components of our ozone haze.
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Wall Street Journal
March 7, 2010
AND THE TOP CLEAN-TECH COMPANIES ARE...
For start-ups that harness the energy of the sun, 2010 looks to be a promising year.
In The Wall Street Journal's first survey of venture-backed clean-technology companies, three solar-power firms came out on top: Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif.; Suniva Inc. of Norcross, Ga.; and eSolar Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. The rankings, announced Thursday at the Journal's ECO:Nomics Executive Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., seek to identify those green companies that have the capital, executive experience and investor know-how to succeed in an increasingly crowded field.
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CNBC
March 9, 2010
TOYOTA DENIES REPORT OF NEW PRIUS RECALL
Toyota is denying a report that it plans to recall its Prius model, years 2004 through 2009. The automaker was said to be planning a future recall of 2004-2009 Priuses to prevent gas pedal entrapment, according to the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.
However, Toyota issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying there is no new recall being planned to address the issue.
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Regulatory Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
CHU DOESN'T PULL PUNCHES ON GLOBAL WARMING
Stephen Chu may be an academic geek, but he didn't back away from telling a roomful of energy industry representatives that global warming is humans' fault. He began his talk to CERA Week by discussing climate change, citing data that show an increase in atmospheric carbon since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
"The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is due to us," he said. "We have fingerprints all over it."
Even so, Chu acknowledged it will take decades to wean the country off carbon-producing fossil fuels.
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Bloomberg
March 10, 2010
CARBON PRICE MIGHT FALL IN U.S. NORTHEAST AUCTION ON WEAK TRADE
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Carbon dioxide permits to be auctioned today in the U.S. Northeast might attract a record low price amid curbed energy demand and falling trading volumes in the regional emissions market.
“It’s an unexciting market,” Greg Arnold, managing partner at Solana Beach, California-based energy fund manager CE2 Capital Partners LLC, said in a telephone interview. “There’s not a compelling reason to trade this market right now.”
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Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2010
OBAMA PRESSES SENATORS TO REVIVE CLIMATE BILL
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama renewed his push to get a climate and energy bill through Congress in the coming weeks, meeting at the White House Tuesday with cabinet officials and senior Democratic and Republican senators working on the issue.
The White House has been trying to revive a stalled effort in the Senate to gather the needed 60 votes for a bill to cut greenhouse-gas emissions across the economy.
A bill passed last year by the House would achieve that goal by effectively putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions with a "cap and trade" system. The cap and trade proposal has divided Congress, and stirred opposition from some business groups that say cap and trade will result in higher energy prices and job losses.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT FOCUSES ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
A caravan of 14 senators is heading to the White House this afternoon for a closed-door summit on energy meant to jump start negotiations over the best way for Congress to cap greenhouse gases.
The group of seven Democrats, six Republicans and Connecticut independent Joseph Lieberman represents a broad spectrum of opinion on the issue, though all have indicated they could support some limits on carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
ENERGY DEPARTMENT DEFENDS FUNDING OF FOREIGN-OWNED RENEWABLES PROJECTS
Amid mounting criticism, the Energy Department last week defended its allocation of stimulus funding to foreign companies developing renewable energy projects in the United States.
Matt Rogers, the senior adviser to the energy secretary, told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Thursday that 100 percent of the $2.6 billion it gave out through the renewable energy grant program included in last year’s economic recovery plan went to fund American projects and that the $2.3 billion in tax credits it provided for 183 clean energy manufacturing projects in 43 states will generate more than 17,000 jobs.
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Houston Chronicle
March 9, 2010
STATE DEPT. STANDS UP FOR DOMESTIC POLICY AT CERAWEEK
One might expect the panel on U.S. energy policy at CERAWeek this afternoon to have focused on domestic energy sources. The federal government's representative on the panel, however, was from the U.S. State Department -- you know, those guys who handle foreign policy?
David Goldwyn, coordinator of International Energy Affairs for the State Department, said much of his job is working with our overseas oil suppliers to ensure good relations. But he was game to stand up for the Obama administration when it came to domestic supplies.
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Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010
U.N. TO ANNOUNCE REVIEW OF CLIMATE PANEL
Top United Nations officials plan to announce Wednesday that the InterAcademy Council, an organization representing scientists from around the world, will head up a review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a person familiar with the matter said.
Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary general, and Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC, are set to make the announcement in New York, the person familiar with the matter said. The announcement of more details of how the review will be conducted comes roughly a week after the panel said it would seek independent experts to investigate how factual errors were published in the IPCC's latest report, issued in 2007, and how the panel can prevent such mistakes in the future.
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Bloomberg
March 10, 2010
UN CARBON OFFICIAL SEES LIMITED OFFSET GROWTH, HIGHER PRICES
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Credits from projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions under a UN program will increase by about a fifth this year, a member of the oversight board said, less than analysts have forecast.
Shafqat Kakakhel, who serves on the executive board of the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, said the price of Certified Emission Reduction credits “should go up a little bit” this year. In an interview, he forecast the board would issue credits for as little as 148 million tons of carbon this year. That’s short of the median estimate of 170 million tons from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
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Bloomberg
March 10, 2010
KERRY SAYS ‘GREAT DEAL’ OF CONSENSUS REACHED ON CLIMATE POLICY
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John Kerry said a bipartisan group of lawmakers achieved a “great deal of consensus” on energy policy at the White House yesterday, and he’s moving “rapidly” to introduce legislation on the subject.
The 14 senators agreed action was needed to promote U.S. energy independence, create jobs in clean energy and cut pollution, said lawmakers who attended the meeting with President Barack Obama.
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Politico
March 10, 2010
CLIMATE'S A HOT ISSUE IN ARKANSAS
Arkansas is rapidly emerging as ground zero for climate politics, as advocates from all sides swarm embattled incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
Lincoln’s approval rating — at an all-time low of 27 percent — has made her one of the most politically endangered Democrats in the Senate. Last week, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter jumped into the race, posing a serious challenge from the left to the conservative Democrat.
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New York Times
March 9, 2010
CLIMATE GOAL IS SUPPORTED BY CHINA AND INDIA
WASHINGTON — China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up. The two countries, among the largest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, submitted letters to the United Nations agreeing to be included on a list of countries covered by the Copenhagen Accord, a three-page nonbinding statement reached at the end of the contentious and chaotic 10-day conference.
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Politico
March 9, 2010
EPA DEFENDS GREENHOUSE GAS CAPS
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson defended controversial new rules Monday that would slash greenhouse gases across the economy, taking on critics from both sides of the aisle who want to delay the regulations.
“At no point in our history has any problem been solved by waiting another year to act,” Jackson said at the National Press Club, arguing that the new rules could spur job creation by encouraging companies to create new, lower-carbon technologies.
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March 9, 2010
Lead Stories
CNBC
March 9, 2010
SYRIA WANTS TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR ENERGY
PARIS - A senior Syrian official says his country would like to pursue nuclear power to meet growing energy needs.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad says "the peaceful application of nuclear energy should not be monopolized by the few that own this technology but should be available to all."
He says Syria is looking at "alternative energy sources, including nuclear energy" to meet growing demand for energy in his country, noting its growing population.
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Reuters
March 9, 2010
ISRAEL WEIGHING CONSTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
(Reuters) - Israel will this week unveil plans to produce nuclear-generated electricity, officials said on Monday, a move that could draw fresh international attention toward its assumed atomic arsenal.
World
Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told Reuters he will announce at an energy conference in Paris on Tuesday that Israel is officially looking into the possibility of building a nuclear power plant to diversify its energy sector.
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KWTX
March 8, 2010
ONCOR SIDE-BY-SIDE METER COMPARISON DRAWS MIXED REACTION
TEMPLE (March 09, 2010)-One utility company is making efforts to restore consumer confidence in its new smart meters after months of complaints from its customers over high electric bills,
Oncor Electric Delivery began doing side-by-side meter comparisons last week in Temple between its new digital ‘Smart’ meters and the old, recently replaced analog meters.
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Bloomberg
March 9, 2010
GLOBAL ‘GREEN STIMULUS’ SPENDING MAY TRIPLE IN 2010, HSBC SAYS
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Global “green stimulus” spending may triple this year as the U.S., European Union and China pay out money pledged to encourage renewable power and energy efficiency, HSBC Holdings Plc said.
Government promises to boost wind and solar power, build more efficient electricity grids and encourage lower-carbon forms of transport amounted to $521 billion the past two years, the London-based bank said today in a note to investors. About $82 billion of that was spent last year with $248 billion more likely to be disbursed this year, HSBC said.
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Oil & Gas Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
OHIO BP REFINERY FACING FINES OF $3 MILLION
OREGON, OHIO — The U.S. government has issued nearly $3 million in fines against the operators of an Ohio refinery over safety violations.
The refinery is just outside Toledo. BP North American operates and jointly owns the refinery with Canadian-based Husky Energy.
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials say some of the violations put workers at risk.
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Dallas Morning News
March 8, 2010
ANALYST: EXXON LIKELY TO MAKE BIG ACQUISITION IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS
Deutsche Bank makes two particularly interesting points in a research note about Exxon Mobil: The company will probably make a big acquisition sometime in the next decade, and Big Oil is grappling with convincing kingdoms and socialist government to share their oil resources.
Deutsche argues that the best use of the cash Exxon has been bringing in during the boom is to buy a big company during the bust.
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San Antonio Express News
March 8, 2010
VALERO'S KLESSE PAID $10.9 MILLION IN '09
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The top executive of San Antonio-based Valero Energy received compensation valued at $10.9 million in 2009, representing a 64 percent increase from the prior year, according to an Associated Press calculation of figures disclosed in a regulatory filing by the nation's largest independent petroleum refinery.
The compensation of Bill Klesse, Valero's president, chairman and CEO, came even as Valero reported a loss of nearly $2 billion in 2009 as refiners have struggled to pass much higher oil prices on to customers.
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CNBC
March 9, 2010
OIL FALLS TO $81 FROM 8-WEEK HIGH ON SUPPLY FORECAST
Oil prices slipped back from eight-week highs on Tuesday on expectations of a rise in U.S. crude inventories and a slightly stronger dollar.
U.S. crude inventories probably rose for a sixth straight week as imports edged up and refinery utilization remained flat, a Reuters survey showed.
U.S. light, sweet crude for April fell, after touching $82.41 on Monday, the highest level since prices jumped to a 15-month high of $83.95 on Jan. 11.
London Brent crude for April fell.
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Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
CERAWEEK PANEL: DEVELOPING NATIONS KEY TO FUTURE
A shifting center of gravity from the developed to the developing world will redefine the energy landscape over the next two decades.
That's the theme that emerged from the first panel discussion of this year's IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates' IHS CERAWeek conference in downtown Houston. The discussion kicked off five days of panels and lectures featuring top energy executives, policy makers and analysts.
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Reuters
March 8, 2010
WHAT ARE THE BIG ISSUES FOR CERAWEEK?
March 8 (Reuters) - The symbiotic link between oil and the economy will dominate CERAWeek, the CERA consultancy's annual go-to gathering of elite energy and economic figures and thinkers that begins on Monday in Houston. Here are five crucial industry issues that are likely to dominate discussions, and the speakers who will address them:
OIL PRICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE:
Is $80 a barrel a high enough price to ensure oil production continues to keep pace with oil demand? Prices have seesawed from their 2008 heights near $150 a barrel to about $32 in December 2008 before recovering to about $80 recently.
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Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
FOWLER: ENTERING AN AGE OF 'GLOBAL REDESIGN' AT CERAWEEK
IHS-CERA frames a lot of its research around what it calls scenarios -- broad descriptions of trends and events that aren't meant to be an exact prediction of the future, but rather a tool to let companies and organizations think about risk, change and uncertainty. A few years ago they unveiled a new round of scenarios with names like "Asian Phoenix" and "Break Point."
Jim Burkhard, a managing director with IHS-CERA, outlined a new scenario this afternoon called "Global Redesign." In a nutshell it's about five difficult transitions the world will go through between now and 2030.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 8, 2010
CONVERSATION ABOUT GROWTH IN GLOBAL ENERGY DEMAND BEGINS WITH CHINA
HOUSTON -- As a panel of experts pondered the energy world of the future at a posh downtown hotel Monday afternoon, one word persistently cropped up.
That, of course, was China, which has the world's largest population and an emerging economy with wildly surging energy demand that not even the global Great Recession has reined in.
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Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2010
SPRING OIL RALLY SEEMS LESS LIKELY THIS YEAR
The oil market's usual spring bounce may not get far off the ground this year.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its widely followed short-term energy outlook midday Tuesday.
Its price forecasts typically have underestimated a spike in summer oil prices. This month, though, the government forecast could closely mirror the mood in the market, which seems reluctant to kick off a rally that has come like clockwork each of the past six springs.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
WHY ARE OPTIONS BULLISH ON THIS OIL FIRM?
Sunoco surged last week and saw upside option activity Friday in the April contracts.
OptionMonster's real-time systems detected 7,500 April 29 calls bought at the same second for $1.20. The buying dwarfed both the open interest of 561 contracts and the average daily volume of just 40 calls at the strike.
Sunoco, which manufactures and markets various petroleum products, closed Friday at $29.21, up 2.6 percent on the day and more than 10 ercent on the week. The stock has underperformed in the last year since trading over $45 in January 2009.
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Bloomberg
March 9, 2010
EXXON LOWERS BAR, BUYS ASSETS PREVIOUSLY DEEMED UNATTRACTIVE
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Total SA are investing in assets that previously weren’t worth their time or money after oil-rich nations reduced access to reserves and exploration drilling faltered.
Efforts to find new sources of crude and natural gas are failing more often, with San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp.’s exploration failure rate jumping to 35 percent last year from 10 percent in 2008. Countries such as Venezuela are making it more expensive for companies to develop their resources, if they’re allowed in at all. And previously developed fields are drying up, reducing oil companies’ future supplies, or reserves.
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Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
PETROBRAS CEO SAYS GULF OF MEXICO IS MOST IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT
A few weeks ago, Petrobras' asset manager for the Gulf of Mexico announced that its two ultradeep water fields, Cascade and Chinook, would be producing by mid-2010.
Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, who gave a luncheon speech to the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce today, was a bit more specific, saying that we would see the first oil from its Gulf of Mexico projects by June or July this year.
Gabrielli said that the Gulf of Mexico is the company's premier investment.
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
MEXICO OIL POLITICS KEEPS RICHES JUST OUT OF REACH
VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Mexico — To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.
Yet today, that 72-year-old act has put Mexico in a straitjacket, one that threatens both the welfare of the country and the oil supply of the United States.
The national oil company created after the 1938 seizure, Pemex, is entering a period of turmoil. Oil production in its aging fields is sagging so rapidly that Mexico, long one of the world’s top oil-exporting countries, could begin importing oil within the decade.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
THESE SECTORS POISED TO RISE OVER 6 MONTHS: STRATEGIST
Markets turned mixed in tepid trading on Monday. How should you position your portfolio? Tyler Vernon, chief investment officer at Biltmore Capital and Frank Holmes, CEO and chief investment officer at U.S. Global Investors shared their investment strategies... “Whenever you’ve had massive credit contraction, it takes many years before you get to your cyclical patterns,” he said. “But within that, you get these substantial rallies that take place.”
Holmes said seasonally, investors should expect commodities like oil and natural gas to perform well over the next six months.
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PressTV
March 9, 2010
TOTAL CONFIRMS OIL REFINERY CLOSURE AMID PROTESTS
Oil giant Total has announced the closure of its refinery in northern France but vowed to protect jobs by reassigning the workers to other plants.
As Total promised not to lay off 370 workers at the refinery, about 300 staff members stormed the company's offices in the La Défense business district near Paris on Monday.
Police had to be called in to get the workers out of Total's Dunkirk plant.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
POLICE PROBE EXEC'S DISAPPEARANCE
The disappearance of a Houston energy executive in New Orleans's French Quarter could have been the result of foul play, a New Orleans Police Department official said Monday.
Douglas Schantz, 54, president of Sequent Energy Management, a subsidiary of AGL Resources Co., went missing after he left the Bourbon Street club Razzoo Bar & Patio. He was last seen at 2 a.m. Friday.
Assistant superintendent Marlon Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department said Mr. Schantz could have been the victim of a crime.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
OIL HAS OUTPERFORMED STOCKS SINCE 2009 MARKET LOW
Oil prices have outpaced equities since the March 2009 stock market low, and while oil and stocks have tracked each other more closely this year, energy is still leading the way.
While the S&P 500 has risen 68 percent since the March bottom, oil futures are up nearly 75 percent. Oil, near a 2010 high, is up 3 percent on the year versus a 2 percent gain for the S&P 500.
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
OIL AND GASOLINE PRICES BEGIN TO CREEP UP
HOUSTON — Crude oil and gasoline prices are inching up again.
Optimism about the economy, new tensions in oil-producing Nigeria and reports that China intends to build up its strategic reserves lifted crude prices to around $82 on Monday, about a $10 increase in the last month.
Prices at the pump are rising, too, with the average national price for a gallon of gasoline jumping 5 cents in the last week, to just above $2.75.
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Utilities Stories
New York Times
March 8, 2010
I.B.M. OPENS ENERGY LAB IN BEIJING
In another sign of China’s emergence as an epicenter of green technology, I.B.M. has opened a lab in Beijing to develop smart grid software for the global market.
“We’re developing solutions for around the world, but we’re looking to China to see how the pieces integrate across the value chain,” said Brad Gammons, I.B.M.’s vice president for sales and distribution for the company’s Energy and Utilities division.
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San Antonio Business Journal
March 8, 2010
CPS ENERGY IS PLANNING TO SELL BONDS TO FINANCE COAL PLANT CONSTRUCTION
Fitch Ratings has assigned a AA+ grade to CPS Energy’s planned $378.8 million gas and electric revenue bond offering.
San Antonio’s municipal utility will use the proceeds from the offering to help finance the completion of the company’s JK Spruce 2 unit and other various generation, transmission and distribution improvements. The Spruce 2 plant is a 750-megawatt coal-fired plant that CPS Energy is building at Calavaras Lake in Southeast Bexar County.
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Alternatives & Renewables Stories
New York Times
March 8, 2010
EUROPEAN ACTIVISTS SUE OVER BIOFUELS STUDIES
Environmental lawyers and activists on Monday sued the European Commission for failing to release studies investigating the impact of biofuels on the environment. European policy was “inventing an artificial market worth billions” and there was a “responsibility to ensure its environmental objectives are achieved,” the activists wrote in an application to the second highest tribunal in the European Union, the General Court, at the European Court of Justice.
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Dallas Morning News
March 8, 2010
HYBRIDS STEAL THE SHOW AT DALLAS AUTO EVENT
Move over, you sexy, sleek, sophisticated Ferraris, Maseratis and Aston Martins: Make room for the Toyota Prius, the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Fusion Hybrid. These green cars were featured prominently at this year's Dallas Auto Show – and generated plenty of buzz among the crowds of car fans who flocked to the turntables and spotlights to get a closer look.
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
SOLAR INDUSTRY LEARNS LESSONS IN SPANISH SUN
PUERTOLLANO, Spain — Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun.
Armed with generous incentives from the Spanish government to jump-start a national solar energy industry, the city set out to replace its failing coal economy by attracting solar companies, with a campaign slogan: “The Sun Moves Us.”
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
LENDING SCHEME TO BRING SOLAR TO CAMBODIA’S POOR
With access to solar-powered energy products for Cambodia’s rural poor extremely limited, the solar energy company Kamworks and the Cambodia Mutual Savings and Credit Network are partnering to provide low-interest loans to customers hoping to outfit their homes with solar panels, while Kamworks will provide and install the equipment.
Directors at the two companies said the scheme — the first of its kind in Cambodia — will help the country’s rural poor gain access to renewable energy.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
VT. WIND PROJECT'S APPROVAL COULD BUOY MOVEMENT
LOWELL, Vt. - Last month, about 40 people from this northern Vermont town piled into a coach bus for a daylong trip to Lempster, N.H.
It wasn't a tourism outing. The trip was arranged so people here could get a firsthand look at the windmills of the Lempster Wind Power Project before they voted on whether to endorse plans for a wind project in their town.
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Bloomberg
March 9, 2010
SOLAR PANEL PRICES TO DECLINE 10% THIS YEAR, PHOENIX CHIEF SAYS
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Solar panel prices will decline about 10 percent in 2010, less than last year’s drop of almost a third, as customers struggle to secure enough modules for their rewewable energy projects, the head of Phoenix Solar AG said.
“The price decline will be nothing like what we saw last year,” Andreas Haenel, Phoenix Solar’s chief executive officer, said today in an interview. “Everyone in Germany has been bled dry and made mega-losses last year and even the Asian suppliers need to remain profitable.”
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Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2010
SASOL'S CHINA PROJECT FACES COMPETITION
Sasol Ltd., the world's largest producer of motor fuels made from coal, is at risk of being squeezed out of a potential multibillion-dollar project in China as the government reviews a competing homegrown technology.
The Johannesburg-based petrochemical concern submitted a plan in December for a 90,000-barrel-a-day coal-to-liquids plant. However, according to a Chinese government document, viewed by Dow Jones Newswires, the review of the coal-to-liquids project has been delayed as regulators await a rival plan based on local technology.
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Houston Press
March 8, 2010
WIND ENERGY IN TEXAS SETS A NEW RECORD
You probably didn't notice it, since we here in Houston don't end up getting much of it, but electricity created by wind energy set a record in Texas over the weekend.
Well, on Friday, at any rate, at 6:37 a.m. when 6,272 megawatts -- about 19 percent of the state's total at the time -- was produced by wind turbines. And that doesn't include the Panhandle, which has plenty of turbines but is on a different grid from ERCOT, the agency that serves most of Texas.
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Bloomberg
March 9, 2010
ETHANOL MAKING COMEBACK AS VALERO SEES PROFIT WHERE GATES LOST
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ethanol, the commodity that cost Bill Gates more than $44 million the last time prices collapsed, is poised to rally as much as 20 percent as the fastest drop since 2008 spurs demand.
Falling corn prices and record ethanol supplies have driven the price down 17 percent in three months to $1.634 a gallon, its worst run since 2008’s fourth quarter. It will average $1.96 a gallon at the peak of the U.S. summer driving season as refiners from Valero Energy Corp. to Sunoco Inc. mix more into gasoline made from increasingly pricey oil, according to the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
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Regulatory Stories
Marketwatch
March 9, 2010
KELLNER: ENERGY CONSERVATION RULE DOESN'T ACCOMPLISH WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- No, Virginia, your eyes are not getting weaker -- your light bulbs are.
Once again, the American people have to deal with misguided laws foisted on them by policymakers in Washington. A glaring example is laws dealing with the use of energy.
Like so many other rules emanating from the nation's capital, energy conservation does not appear to be accomplishing what it was supposed to. Unaware or perhaps unfazed, the Obama administration wants Congress to pass even more regulations, thinking that these will save energy and help the environment.
If the past is any guide, they will be wrong again.
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The Hill
March 9, 2010
SHELL DEFENDS DECISION TO STICK WITH CLIMATE GROUP
Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser heads the only oil company that’s still with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership after BP and ConocoPhillips said they were abandoning the industry-enviro coalition last month.
The coalition, which formed in 2007, is a mix of green groups, power companies, automakers and other corporations pushing for cap-and-trade legislation.
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Financial Times
March 8, 2010
EU CLIMATE CHIEF DELIVERS TREATY BLOW
The world will almost certainly fail to draw up a new treaty on climate change this year, the minister in charge of last year’s Copenhagen summit has admitted, delivering a heavy blow to the barely flickering hopes for a swift global settlement. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister who masterminded the summit of world leaders on global warming last year and is now the European commissioner for climate change, told the Financial Times negotiations were not progressing fast enough for a treaty to be signed soon.
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The Hill
March 8, 2010
EPA TOUGHENS STANCE AGAINST CLIMATE RULE TIME-OUT
EPA had a cautious response (or non-response) last week when Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) introduced his bill that would block regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants and other industrial facilities for two years.
But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson reacted more boldly on Monday to the bill, which has also been introduced in the House.
“I am not in a position where I am going to stand here and support the idea of EPA not being able to use the Clean Air Act,” Jackson told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.
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The Hill
March 8, 2010
HOUSE DEMOCRAT ASKS GAO TO INVESTIGATE NUCLEAR LICENSING PROCESS
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is asking the Government Accountability Office to review the permitting process for nuclear plants as others in his party appear poised to offer lucrative incentives to revive the industry. Among his questions is whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has adequately weighed the risks earthquakes and severe weather may pose to nuclear power plants.
Markey, who co-sponsored climate change legislation that passed the House last June, notes that nuclear power generation, “has been offered by some as one answer to the escalating crisis of global warming as the operation of nuclear power plants results in lower carbon dioxide output than burring carbon-based fossil fuels.”
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
COUNTING ‘OUTSOURCED’ GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
One of the stickiest points in international climate change negotiations is how to account for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions produced to make goods that are then sold for export. Should the producing country be held to account for those emissions? Or does the consuming country bear some responsibility for counting those emissions?
Put another way, if manufacturing an automobile in, say, Korea, produces 10 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and the car is then bought in the United States, which country should be considered responsible for those 10 tons? If and when there is an international carbon control regime, who has to count those tons as part of their national output?
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The Hill
March 8, 2010
EPA CHIEF WARNS OF LOST BENEFITS WITH FRAGMENTED CLIMATE BILL
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday that moving away from a broad “economy-wide” climate bill could hinder private sector investment in low-carbon technologies.
A trio of senators hoping to salvage climate legislation are mulling a plan that breaks with the sweeping cap-and-trade bill the House approved last year.
Instead the senators – John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) – are considering a more fragmented plan that could impose a cap-and-trade system on electric utilities only, at least initially.
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March 8, 2010
Lead Stories
New York Times
March 5, 2010
SETTING WIND POWER RECORDS IN TEXAS
Texas, the nation’s wind-power leader, set a new record for wind generation this morning, when — at 6:37 a.m. — about 19 percent of the electricity on the state’s main grid was supplied by turbines.
The 6,272-megawatt peak — which does not include turbines in the windy Panhandle because that region is on a different grid — surpassed another record, set last Sunday near midday. The state’s overall wind average is significantly lower than these spikes: Last year Texas got 6.2 percent of its electricity from wind, according to Dottie Roark, a spokeswoman for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid serving most of the state. The nation as a whole has less than 2 percent wind in its electricity mix.
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Dallas Morning News
March 5, 2010
ANTI-SMART METER CROWD JUST SAYS NO
The anti-smart meter folks are taking a new strategy. Some are refusing to allow Oncor to install new digital meters.
Oncor spokesman Chris Schein said meter installers encounter about a handful of people each day who refuse to allow the workers to switch the meters.
This morning, 20 people refused.
Schein said some had seen incorrect news reports that the Public Utility Commission instructed Oncor to halt installations. Not true. The PUC on Thursday agreed to hire an outside company to test the meters, but commissioners didn't stop installation.
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The Hill
March 5, 2010
BYRD STEERS CLEAR OF ROCKEFELLER BID TO BLOCK EPA CLIMATE RULES
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) isn’t backing colleague Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) new bill to force a two-year timeout before EPA can implement rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities.
Both are advocates of their home state’s coal industry. But Byrd doesn’t think Rockefeller’s plan is needed because EPA has already pledged to move cautiously on the rules and will not begin implementing them this year.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 7, 2010
ENERGY LENDERS FACE DOUBLE CHALLENGE FROM FINANCIAL AND O & G MARKET TURMOIL
I've been in (the banking) business for a little over 22 years now, and last year was the wildest year I've ever experienced," said Lester Keliher, senior vice president and head of the Dallas office for Wells Fargo's Energy Lending Group. The Dallas office's territory includes the Permian Basin as well as a wide area of the United States.
"I always say that what I like about what I do is that every year is different, but last year was certainly the most different year that I've ever experienced," he continued.
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Oil & Gas Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 5, 2010
NEW CFTC RULES: THE MARKET ADAPTS, SAYS LOYA
For the past year commodity regulators have been mulling over changes to how energy is traded in the U.S., largely in reaction to public anger over the spike in oil and gas prices in 2008.
Naturally, plenty in Houston followed the developments and some, like energy hedge fund boss John Arnold, actually testified before Congress... The outlook on the new rules going into effect continues to seem somewhat benign, as the marketplace has adapted, said Javier Loya, Chairman and CEO of OTC Global Holdings, a Houston-based firm that owns several commodity brokerages around the country and now in the U.K.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
OIL PARES GAIN AFTER HITTING 8-WEEK HIGH
Oil rose towards $82 a barrel on Monday, but pared an earlier gain to an eight-week high, supported by a weaker dollar and signs of economic recovery in top oil consumer the United States.
U.S. light, sweet crude was up, after touching $82.41, the highest since $83.95 on Jan. 11.
London Brent crude rose after hitting $80.92, also the highest since Jan. 11.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 5, 2010
'MONSTER' WELLS EPITOMIZE WHAT THE BARNETT SHALE HAS BECOME
It's getting tougher to make the list of the 10 biggest "monster" wells in the Barnett Shale natural gas field in North Texas.
To join that select group, a well's output must average more than 8 million cubic feet of gas per day during its peak month.
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 Barnett wells has attained such a lofty yield for a month, which is enough gas to meet the heating and cooking needs for about 3,300 homes for a year, based on American Gas Association usage data.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
OIL PRICES TO EXTEND LOSSES THIS WEEK: SURVEY
Benchmark crude oil prices are expected to hold steady around $80 a barrel this week, supported by optimism about a rescue plan for debt-laden Greece and hopes that the economic recovery is gaining some momentum.
Nymex crude futures last week rose 2.3 percent or $1.84 a barrel to $81.50. Four out of nine respondents to CNBC’s weekly poll of analysts, or about 40 percent, expect prices will remain steady this week, three see prices gaining while two forecast a decline.
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Platts
March 4, 2010
WHEN IT COMES TO DRILLING, REPUBLICANS SAY DEMOCRATS ARE "THE PARTY OF NO"
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took a few rhetorical bullets for the Obama administration this week while defending his department's 2010-2011 budget request in front of the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Republicans blasted Obama proposals to cut billions of dollars of tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, hike fees and royalties charged to companies that drill on public land, and make it tougher to obtain both onshore and offshore leases.
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People's Daily
March 5, 2010
CHINA TO LINK NATURAL GAS PRICE WITH OIL
Zhang Guobao, CPPCC member and head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), made it clear March 4 that China's natural gas price will be linked to the oil price. In regards to the current oil price trend, Zhang said that it is involved with too many financial factors and the price does not fully reveal the relationship between supply and demand.
Zhang also disclosed that China and Russia have reached an agreement on prices for natural gas to be imported from Russia, which is a key issue in the natural gas negotiations between the two sides. Many detailed commercial terms still need further negotiation.
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Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
HOUSTON ENERGY EXECUTIVE MISSING
Doug Schantz, the president of Houston's Sequent Energy Managment has been missing since Friday and police in New Orleans, where he was last spotted, suspect foul play.
According to our coverage, Schantz was in New Orleans with several others from the energy marketing and asset management firm to present a donation to Tulane University. The husband and father of three was last seen on video surveillance leaving a Bourbon Street bar by himself at 2 a.m.
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Reuters
March 5, 2010
ALASKA PIPELINE RIVALS PLAY 'MY PIPELINE'S BETTER THAN YOURS'
Players for the dueling Alaska pipelines exchanged a couple of jabs over whose proposal would be successful at the Canadian Institute's Arctic Gas Symposium earlier this week.
Bob Bleaney, general manager of the Denali, the effort of ConocoPhillips and BP, which took a "who cares" stance to state support, said there were benefits to working outside of Alaska Gas Inducement Act, because the project wouldn't be subject to any specific conditions.
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New York Times
March 4, 2010
E.U. TRIES TO HEAD OFF FUTURE NATURAL-GAS SHORTAGES
BRUSSELS — The European Commission sought Thursday to keep all its options open to avoid future crises over supplies of natural gas, as new evidence emerged that another of its main energy goals — encouraging biofuels — might need to be revised.
Günther Oettinger, the bloc’s commissioner for energy, pledged €200 million, or $273 million, for the Nabucco project, a pipeline that would start delivering gas in around 2015 from the Caspian Sea region, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.
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Reuters
March 4, 2010
WILLIAMS TO EXPAND NORTHEAST TRANSCO LINE
NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - A unit of Williams Partners LP (WPZ.N) on Thursday began a binding open season to gauge interest in natural gas transportation on its Transco pipeline from the prolific Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania to New York and New Jersey markets.
The company said in a statement the Northeast Supply Link expansion project would provide 420,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm service on Williams' Transco system.
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Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
ARROW ENERGY GETS $3 BILLION TAKEOVER BID
SYDNEY, — Arrow Energy Ltd. said Monday that a company jointly owned by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina has sent it a takeover bid worth $3.3 billion Australian dollars ($3 billion).
Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. confirmed it was considering acquiring the Australian company.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 6, 2010
MIDLAND CPA UPSETS INCUMBENT RAILROAD COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
While the spotlight was brightest on the governor's race during this week's primary, a former Midlander not only plugged away at his own campaign but pulled off a noteworthy upset.
"I wasn't running a stealth campaign," insisted David Porter, now the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commission, citing mailouts, in-person campaigning and online efforts as part of his campaign. He defeated incumbent Victor Carrillo by more than 20 points in Tuesday's primary. He spent about $50,000 to Carrillo's $300,000 and noted that a majority of his campaign funds came from Midlanders.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
TOTAL SAYS CLOSURE OF FLANDERS REFINERY PERMANENT
PARIS—French oil major Total SA said Monday it has definitively decided to cease oil refining operations at its Flanders refinery near Dunkirk, in France, although it plans to transform the site for other uses and will retain staff there.
The news followed an announcement earlier in the day that Total plans to take a 10% stake in a €1 billion regasification facility Electricite de France SA is erecting at a separate site in the Dunkirk area.
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
SHELL RELYING ON OVER-BUDGET QATAR PLANT TO BOOST PRODUCTION
Royal Dutch Shell Plc spent $19 billion to build the world's largest gas-to-liquids project, triple the original estimate. Now, it's pay-off time and the plant may generate $6 billion a year for the company and Qatar.
Shell needs the plant, known as Pearl, to bolster output, which fell for a seventh year in 2009 in part because rebel violence hampered oil ventures in Nigeria. Qatar, the arid Gulf state that's become the biggest exporter of gas on ships, may account for 10 percent of the company's production after Pearl and a liquefied natural gas project start deliveries next year.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
CHEVRON, EXXON TO UNVEIL 2010 SPENDING, PRODUCTION OUTLOOK
HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) are expected to unveil next week business plans that point toward continued aggressive capital spending and improved production.
But the oil giants are also seen as highlighting in their annual analyst meetings in New York their increasingly bearish view of the marketing and refining business, which has become a money loser due to weak demand for fuel.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
LYONDELLBASELL REJECTS RELIANCE INDUSTRIES BID
NEW DELHI -- LyondellBasell Industries Monday said the company has rejected a bid by Reliance Industries Ltd. to take a controlling stake in the company, saying its own plan to get out of bankruptcy by restructuring the company is superior.
"After deliberate consideration, it was determined that the plan submitted today (to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court) is superior to the Reliance proposal, presents less execution risk," David Harpole, LyondellBasell spokesman, told Dow Jones Newswires.
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Barrons
March 8, 2010
WHERE THE BEST NATURAL-RESOURCE PLAYS ARE BURIED
Since last March, sugar, for instance, had doubled, as did oil. Isn't it too late to join the commodity cycle?
Davis: Commodities are still interesting in a recovery. There's limited spare capacity and rising cost of supply. For many portfolios, an allocation to commodities also provides some insurance against inflation or a weakening dollar. And with some commodity stocks, you're not just buying natural-resource producers, you're buying great companies.
XTO Energy is an example. It generated returns north of 25% annually for 15 years from IPO [to its agreement to be acquired by ExxonMobil (XOM)]. Goldcorp (GG) is another example.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
INDIAN OIL TO LOOK ABROAD, DIVERSIFY, TO CUT LOSSES
NEW DELHI -- State-run Indian Oil Corp., India's largest listed company by sales, plans to buy oil and gas assets overseas, expand its petrochemical business and build a liquefied natural gas terminal, to help it reduce exposure to selling discounted fuel to domestic consumers, its new chairman said.
"Africa is our first preference," Indian Oil Chairman Brij Mohan Bansal told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are open to other continents too, as long as it is economical to bring the crude to India."
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Wall Street Journal
March 5, 2010
CONOCO SAYS IT RECEIVED NOTICE OF PDVSA INTERNATIONAL LAWSUIT
HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Venezuela's state oil company has officially told ConocoPhillips (COP) it is suing the U.S. oil giant in international court over a Texas refining joint venture.
A Conoco spokesman said Friday that Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, told the Houston-based company it was initiating arbitration proceedings with the International Chamber of Commerce, challenging Conoco's attempt to buy PDVSA's interest in their jointly-owned Merey Sweeney LP unit.
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Utilities Stories
San Antonio Business Journal
March 5, 2010
CPS ENERGY WORKING TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS ON SOLAR BANDWAGON
After getting off to a slow start with its solar rebate program, CPS Energy is planning a big push later this year to promote its efforts to encourage residential and commercial customers to use more solar energy.
CPS is offering a rebate of $3 for every watt of solar power generated by a customer’s solar energy system — 50 cents higher that what is currently being offered in Austin.
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CNBC
March 5, 2010
IN FLORIDA, THE NEWEST HYBRID ENERGY MODEL
In former swamplands teeming with otters and wild hogs, one of the nation’s biggest utilities is running an experiment in the future of renewable power.
Across 500 acres north of West Palm Beach, the FPL Group utility is assembling a life-size Erector Set of 190,000 shimmering mirrors and thousands of steel pylons that stretch as far as the eye can see. When it is completed by the end of the year, this vast project will be the world’s second-largest solar plant.
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Fort Worth Business Press
March 8, 2010
ELECTRICITY GENERATION: GAS PRODUCERS TAKE ON COAL
There’s a battle going on: shale gas producers, searching for a home for their fuel, say natural gas can take on a larger burden of the electricity-generation market, but the coal lobby isn’t going without a fight.
Coal accounts for about half of U.S. electricity generation, while natural gas takes up about 21 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Natural gas producers want to see those numbers reflect Texas, where it’s natural gas that accounts for half and coal for about 36 percent.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 7, 2010
ENERGY AUDIT REVEALS HOW PARKER COUNTY COUPLE COULD REDUCE THEIR ELECTRIC BILLS
Imogene Simpson and her husband, James "Buddy" Simpson, a retired Parker County couple of modest means, still haven't paid their $646.68 electric bill that was due to TXU Energy in mid-February.
The Simpsons have protested the bill and questioned the accuracy of their meter, while at the same time accepting an offer by TXU for a free home energy audit, which was conducted Tuesday.
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New York Times
March 8, 2010
E.U. TO BEGIN PRESS ON NUCLEAR STANDARDS
BRUSSELS — The head of the European Commission was to begin a push Monday for European safety standards for nuclear power plants to become binding worldwide, a development that might benefit France as it competes to sell its expensive technology and expertise against countries offering cheaper alternatives.
José Manuel Barroso said in a speech to be delivered at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris that the European Union was “the first big regional actor to make the main international norms for nuclear security internationally binding.”
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
SARKOZY URGES EASIER FINANCING FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY
PARIS—French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday urged the World Bank and other international institutions to help ease financing for civil nuclear-power projects around the world.
In a speech at an international conference in Paris on the theme of access to nuclear power, Mr. Sarkozy said he proposes to "eliminate the ostracism of nuclear energy in international financing."
"I do not understand why international financial institutions and development banks do not finance civil nuclear energy projects," Mr. Sarkozy said. "The current situation means that countries are condemned to rely on more costly energy that causes greater pollution."
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Reuters
March 8, 2010
ANALYSIS: SMART GRID SPENDING POWERS AHEAD IN ASIA
SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Japan, South Korea and China are investing about $9 billion this year in infrastructure and information technology to make electricity networks more efficient, creating lucrative opportunities for niche technology and equipment providers.
The "smart grid" system, through computerised monitoring of electricity flowing through a power grid, allows utilities to automatically manage electricity usage in a way that is more reliable and flexible.
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New York Times
March 4, 2010
POWER CUTS FROM DROUGHT WILL HIT MANILA
MANILA — This capital city and several neighboring provinces will experience blackouts in the coming days as the country grapples with a drought that has devastated more than a dozen provinces, drying up rivers and reducing the water levels in lakes behind hydroelectric dams.
The power failures will occur in several areas of Manila on a rotating basis and should last no more than an hour, according to officials of Meralco, the private company that supplies electricity to city.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
PHILIPPINES CONSIDERING LEASING POWER BARGES, PLANTS TO EASE BLACKOUTS AMID DROUGHT
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is considering leasing power barges from the private sector to boost electricity supply, as blackouts brought on by a three-month drought hit parts of the country.
The dry spell has caused water levels in hydroelectric dams to drop to critical levels, leading to power rationing in the southern region of Mindanao.
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Alternatives & Renewables Stories
Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
IT CAME FROM THE SEA
Since mapping the human genome 10 years ago, J. Craig Venter has found plenty of work. The biologist now is burrowing into DNA in as many forms as he can discover, in organisms from the sea and deep underground. His goal: to use the building blocks found in naturally occurring DNA to make synthetic cells. He and his partners at Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC believe genetically engineered life forms hold great promise for energy and other industries.
The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray interviewed Dr. Venter about his work. What follows are edited excerpts of their conversation.
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Bloomberg
March 8, 2010
SOUTH KOREA SOLAR-PANEL OUTPUT MAY RISE, INDUSTRY OFFICIAL SAYS
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s solar-panel production may more than double this year on the global economic recovery and lower component costs, an industry official said.
“South Korean solar-module makers are running their plants at full capacity, up from about 50 percent early last year when the global recession hit the market,” Lee Seongho, executive vice president at Korea Photovoltaic Industry Association, said in an interview in Seoul today. Output may exceed 1,000 megawatts this year compared with 500 megawatts in 2009, he said.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
BLOOM ENERGY'S KR SRIDHAR EXPLAINS WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT HIS COMPANY'S FUEL-CELL PRODUCT
Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy Corp. late last month introduced a fuel-cell device called the Bloom Box, which it says is capable of generating electricity with less pollution and at a lower price, with subsidies, than utility-supplied power in many areas.
Bloom Energy says several large companies are using the Bloom Box and are happy with the results so far, though skeptics note that fuel cells have been around for quite a while and so far have proved too expensive to serve as a viable alternative to grid-supplied power.
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CNBC
March 5, 2010
TAMMINEN: CAR CLUB GOES GREEN?
In 2006, Australia’s National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) released a study about dependence on oil "down under." Worried about the impact of unpredictable prices on the cost of transporting people and products, the report warned that by the end of the decade, Australia, much like the US, would import more than half its oil—a precarious dependency that could put the nation’s economy in serious jeopardy.
I visited the NRMA this week in Sydney as they released the 2010 version of this report. Not only was it right back in 2006—Australia now imports 55 percent of its oil—the updated report predicts that over 80 percent will be imported within another decade and prices will rise dramatically as a result.
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New York Times
March 6, 2010
FRIEDMAN: DREAMING THE POSSIBLE DREAM
The thing I love most about America is that there’s always somebody who doesn’t get the word — somebody who doesn’t understand that in a Great Recession you’re supposed to hunker down, downsize and just hold on for dear life. I have a couple of friends who fit that bill, who think a recession is a dandy time to try to discover better and cheaper ways to do things. They both happen to be Indian-Americans — one a son of the Himalayas, who came to America on a scholarship and went to work for NASA to try to find a way to Mars; the other a son of New Delhi, who came here and found the Sun, Sun Microsystems. Both are serial innovators. Both are now shepherding clean-tech start-ups that have the potential to be disruptive game changers. They don’t know from hunkering down. They just didn’t get the word.
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Bloomberg
March 8, 2010
SOLON JUMPS AFTER REPORT SAYS GERMAN STATE AID LIKELY
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Solon SE jumped as much as 21 percent in German trading following a report that the unprofitable maker of solar panels may get state aid guarantees.
Solon, the best performer today on the Bloomberg Global Leaders Solar Index, rose as high as 5.85 euros and traded at 5.60 euros, up 78 cents, or 16 percent, at 14:11 p.m. local time. That valued the company at 70 million euros ($96 million).
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Bloomberg
March 8, 2010
INVESTORS SOUR ON THESE STOCKS, SO I LIKE THEM: JOHN DORFMAN
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Solar-energy stock prices have been falling for about two years.
Once viewed as the newest and greenest energy source, solar power has become less popular with investors. They gradually realized that it is far from competitive with conventional energy sources on price, and that it accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity generation.
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Regulatory Stories
Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
BALL: CREATING ENVIRONMENTAL CAPITAL
One thing is certain in the race for a cleaner energy system: Nothing is going to be certain for quite a long time. In Washington last week, the Obama administration abandoned the long-running plan to bury nuclear waste below Nevada's Yucca Mountain, another potential barrier to new nuclear power plants in the U.S. Big questions loom about the viability of electric cars and of futuristic power plants that would shoot their greenhouse-gas emissions underground instead of skyward. And concerns about unintended environmental consequences are thwarting plans for wind and solar farms from Wyoming to the Mojave Desert.
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Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2010
PETER VOSER OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL TALKS ABOUT THE KIND OF ENERGY LEGISLATION HE'D LIKE TO SEE
These days, giant oil companies find themselves trying to balance two big pressures on their business. Governments are trying to slash carbon emissions—but the world's thirst for oil is growing by leaps and bounds. Peter Voser, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, is navigating the situation by joining a business-backed effort to push for global-warming laws, and making sure Shell has a strong exposure to natural gas and alternative fuels.
Mr. Voser sat down with The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray and Kimberley Strassel to talk about the future of climate-change legislation, the company's push beyond oil, the prospects for electric vehicles and more.
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CNBC
March 8, 2010
IMF SUGGESTS HOW TO RAISE CLIMATE CHANGE FUNDS
NAIROBI, Kenya - The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change later this year.
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Dallas Morning News
March 5, 2010
GREENHOUSE GAS LIMITS ARE STILL ALIVE, BUT IS CAP AND TRADE DEAD?
Cap and trade seemed like a sure thing just a year ago. A slew of big businesses supported it, and the House of Representatives had passed its bill, with many Texas Democrats voting for it.
Then the Senate got hold of it, which precipitated a series of legislative revolts and defections of businesses from groups that support the effort. To recap: there was a boycott of Senator Barbara Boxer's bill by Republican members of the Senate Environment Committee; an effort to revive bipartisan climate-change legislation by Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham; a push by Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in the Senate and Texas' Joe Barton (R-Arlington) in the House to overturn the EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health; a legal challenge of that EPA finding by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and others; and, finally, a revolt against the nascent regulatory action by coal-state Democrats who don't trust the EPA. The Wall Street Journal has a good story today that discusses the last of those items.
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CNBC
March 5, 2010
ENERGY GROUPS RELIEVED BIRD NOT LISTED 'ENDANGERED'
The Interior Department announcement Friday that it won't list sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species opens the way for continued development of the West's wind energy, oil and gas industries.
Those industries will still face scrutiny in sage grouse habitat but much less so than if the bird were listed.
The government concluded that listing the chicken-sized brown bird as threatened or endangered is warranted but precluded by higher priorities — other species considered in greater danger.
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The Hill
March 8, 2010
SEN. KERRY LOBBIES FOR CLIMATE COMPROMISE; ACTUAL BILL TO COME
The three senators writing compromise climate legislation are lobbying business groups in hopes of winning their support for the effort. One obstacle: the absence of an actual bill.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) briefed a group of electric utility executives this week on a broad outline of the plan. Kerry and his cohorts, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have also reached out to Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has been among the harshest critics of a climate bill stalled in the Senate.
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Dallas Morning News
March 4, 2010
EPA WOULD REQUIRE PERMITS TO SPUR BIGGEST POLLUTERS TO CUT EMISSIONS
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency intends to require that power plants, refineries and other major sources of global-warming pollution get permits beginning in 2011 that would require them to cut emissions, the agency's leader said Wednesday.
In the absence of legislation, the EPA has begun considering ways to regulate stationary sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Businesses say such rules would add new costs and pinch many industries in Texas, the leading source of global-warming pollution among states.
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CNBC
March 5, 2010
GERMAN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS DROP BY 8.4 PERCENT IN 2009 DUE TO CRISIS
BERLIN - Germany says its greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 8.4 percent last year due to drop in industrial activity amid the economic crisis.
Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said Friday the emissions reduction by 80 million tons in Europe's largest economy was the deepest in 60 years.
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New York Times
March 5, 2010
FOR LIGHTING, AN EXCEPTION TO ‘BUY AMERICAN’
The Department of Energy has waived a “buy American” requirement for government projects receiving money from last year’s stimulus bill so that recipients can purchase energy-efficient lighting products for public buildings and roadways.
The department issued the waiver after determining that products like compact fluorescent light bulbs and traffic signals made with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are manufactured almost exclusively in China and Mexico.
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The Hill
March 5, 2010
GORE-BACKED CLIMATE GROUPS FORM SINGLE ORGANIZATION
Two climate change groups that Al Gore founded are merging.
The union of the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Climate Protection and the Nashville, Tennessee-based Climate Project will result in “one of the largest non-profit educational and advocacy organizations focused singularly on climate protection issues in the world,” the groups said Friday.
The Alliance is an advocacy group that pushes for policies that impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions and spur a rapid transition to low-carbon power sources. Its political advocacy arm recently launched television ads that push centrist Democrats to support climate legislation.
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March 6, 2010
Oil & Gas Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 8, 2010
CERAWEEK BACK, AND SO IS THINKING ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE
A year ago, when CERAWeek came to town, the energy sector was more focused on surviving the global economic crisis than pondering big-picture issues that could shape its future.
“People were really hunkering down, and there were those out there — not us — saying it was the end of the world,” said Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power and chairman of Massachusetts' IHS-Cambridge Energy Research Associates, which hosts the premier industry conference.
“Now, it's people getting back to business, thinking longer-term and making plans,” he said in an interview ahead of CERAWeek 2010, which runs Monday-Friday at the Hilton Americas-Houston downtown.
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March 5, 2010
Lead Stories
Dallas Morning News
March 5, 2010
PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION ORDERS TESTS OF SMART METERS
The Texas Public Utility Commission agreed Thursday to hire a company to independently test the accuracy of new smart meters, in an attempt to ease concerns that the meters cause bills to jump.
The three commissioners agreed during an open meeting to engage a third party to test meters installed by Oncor and Centerpoint Energy. The PUC staff will try to hire someone within two weeks for the tests.
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Politico
March 4, 2010
ROCKEFELLER AIMS TO BLOCK EPA RULES
West Virginia Democratic Sen. John Rockefeller has introduced legislation barring the Environmental Protection Agency from instituting rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other industrial sources for the next two years.
The bill, said Rockefeller, will "safeguard jobs, the coal industry, and the entire economy."
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New York Times
March 4, 2010
$100 MILLION IN STIMULUS FUNDS FOR GREEN TECH
The Department of Energy announced this week that $100 million in stimulus funds would be distributed to help accelerate innovation in green technology.
“The idea is to get a whole ecosystem of innovative technologies,” said Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, which is managing the program.
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Washington Times
March 5, 2010
CLIMATE SCIENTISTS PLOT TO FIGHT BACK AT SKEPTICS
Undaunted by a rash of scandals over the science underpinning climate change, top climate researchers are plotting to respond with what one scientist involved said needs to be "an outlandishly aggressively partisan approach" to gut the credibility of skeptics.
In private e-mails obtained by The Washington Times, climate scientists at the National Academy of Sciences say they are tired of "being treated like political pawns" and need to fight back in kind. Their strategy includes forming a nonprofit group to organize researchers and use their donations to challenge critics by running a back-page ad in the New York Times.
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Oil & Gas Stories
Reuters
March 4, 2010
OIL AND GAS CO FILES FOR $350 MLN IPO
NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - Oil and gas exploration company Oasis Petroleum Inc filed for an initial public offering of up to $350 million on Thursday.
Houston, Texas-based Oasis is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and development company. Most of the company's business is focused in the Williston Basin in northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota.
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Wall Street Journal
March 5, 2010
CNOOC NEAR DEAL TO DEVELOP IRAQ OIL
A consortium led by Cnooc Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp., is the front-runner to win the right to develop Iraq's 2.5 billion-barrel Missan oil-field complex after agreeing to Iraqi government proposals, officials said Thursday.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry has concluded talks with Cnooc and its partner, Sinochem International Corp., relating to the development of the three Missan fields in southern Iraq and has submitted a draft contract to the cabinet for final approval, said one official familiar with the talks.
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CNBC
March 5, 2010
OIL RISES TOWARD $81; CHINA SIGNALS STIMULUS
Crude climbed towards $81 a barrel on Friday, approaching a seven-week high, after signals China will maintain its economic stimulus measures boosted hopes that strong growth will help drain excess oil supplies.
U.S. crude for April gained, after touching a seven-week high of $81.23 two days ago.
London ICE Brent for April rose.
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UpstreamOnline
March 3, 2010
GAZPROM SAYS LNG CAN COMPETE WITH SHALE
“Shale gas and LNG are competitive in one price range,” Gazprom exec Alexander Medvedev said in an interview in Paris yesterday.
“The market will say who will be in the market and with what.”
Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas producer, plans to gain as much as 10% of the US market by 2020.
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CNBC
March 4, 2010
BUY THE DRILLING BOOM
“The oil-service business is on fire,” [CNBC's Jim] Cramer said Thursday, and Weatherford International is the best way to play it.
Last Friday’s Baker Hughes Rig Count number, which is a weekly count of the rigs drilling for oil and natural gas, showed a 28% increase over the previous seven-day period. That’s the biggest jump in 17 years, and the ninth straight weekly gain in nat-gas rig use. This is great news for the oil-service names, Cramer said, which supply these rigs with essential products and services.
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Business Week
March 4, 2010
TERRORIST GROUP PLANNING MALACCA OIL-TANKER ATTACKS
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- A terror alert from the Singapore navy to oil tankers in the Malacca Strait, a shipping lane that’s almost six times busier than the Suez Canal, may be linked to regional groups associated with al-Qaeda.
Singapore’s navy has “received indication” that a terrorist group is planning attacks on oil tankers in the Malacca Strait, according to an advisory today from its Information Fusion Centre.
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
FOWLER: THE 'SUPER BOWL OF ENERGY' HITS HOUSTON NEXT WEEK
If you're trying to hunt down an energy reporter in Houston next week your best bet will be IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates' 29th annual energy forum next week, aka CERAWeek.
The event, now expanded to five days of panel discussions and keynote speeches, has been referred to as 'the Super Bowl of energy conferences' because of its importance (although maybe we should start calling the Offshore Technology Conference the Superbowl it features hulking pieces of equipment and is held in Reliant Stadium? Maybe CERAWeek is really more like the NCAA Tournament?). It will be at the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown this year, having left its longtime haunt at the Westin Galleria.
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Wall Street Journal
March 5, 2010
YUKOS, RUSSIA SQUARE OFF IN FRANCE
MOSCOW—Lawyers for OAO Yukos and the Russian government faced off in Europe's top human-rights court Thursday as the bankrupt oil giant sought a record $98 billion in compensation for what its lawyer argued was a "disguised expropriation." The 3½-hour session at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, was a rare public hearing outside Russia in a case that became a defining moment of the rule of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
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Enviro Politics Blog
March 3, 2010
MARCELLUS HYDROFRACKING CRITICS APPEAL TO THE EPA
Environmental groups, concerned by potential ground and surface water pollution risks posed by a controversial drilling method used to extract natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania and New York, have turned to the EPA for help.
Reuters reports that 63 groups, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, have asked the federal government agency to expand a current probe of coal-bed methane extraction to include other forms of oil and gas exploration including hydraulic fracturing.
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Stratfor.com
March 5, 2010
THINKING ABOUT THE UNTHINKABLE: A U.S.-IRANIAN DEAL
The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question.
As we have no idea what leaders on either side are thinking, exploring this represents an exercise in geopolitical theory. Let’s begin with the two apparent stark choices.
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CNBC
March 4, 2010
PICKENS: EXPLOIT US NATURAL GAS, REPLACE OPEC OIL
The U.S. will make a monumental mistake if it doesn't utilize one of its most prevalent energy resources, natural gas, energy tycoon Boone Pickens told CNBC Thursday.
"You've got 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—that makes us number one in the world," Pickens said. "We're going to be fools, we'll be identified as the dumbest people in the world if we don't capitalize on this resource and replace OPEC oil."
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
HIGH OIL PRICES COULD SPELL TROUBLE
SMU's Bruce Bullock wrote a rather ominous post yesterday on his Barrels and BTUs blog about high oil prices and the potential for another recession.
Oil prices reached $81 a barrel yesterday, which Bullock notes is historically high for this time of year. It's particularly troubling when the economy has yet to rebound and consumer spending remains low.
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San Antonio Express News
March 4, 2010
NIGERIAN MILITANTS CLAIM ATTACK ON AGIP PIPELINE
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta announced Thursday they had attacked a major pipeline junction run by the Italian firm Agip, only days after claiming responsibility for another attack in the region.
A statement by the Joint Revolutionary Council claimed its fighters launched an assault early Wednesday morning on an Agip pipeline junction that connects several crude oil storage fields. However, Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, a military spokesman for the region, dismissed the attack claims as "completely false."
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
EXXONMOBIL SAYS EUROPEAN SHALE HAS POTENTIAL, BUT IT'S STILL EARLY
Earlier this week, Exxon said there may be a number of "commercial possibilities" for unconventional gas in Europe, but it's still early for any nat gas projects, Bloomberg reported.
Last month, JPMorgan Chase & Co. noted that Exxon and other majors are securing land in Europe to exploit shale gas. A JPMorgan analyst also said it was early for European plays.
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Houston Chronicle
March 5, 2010
HAYWARD GETS BIG RAISE AFTER BP OUTPRODUCES EXXON MOBIL
BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward received a 41 percent pay increase last year, after the company produced more oil and gas than Exxon Mobil Corp. for the first time.
Hayward was paid 4.01 million pounds ($6 million) in cash and shares compared with 2.85 million pounds in 2008, BP said in its annual report published today. The figures don't include his pension fund, which is worth about 2.7 million pounds.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 4, 2010
CARTER AVENUE LANDOWNER LOSES ROUND IN COURT OVER GAS PIPELINE
FORT WORTH -- The last landowner standing in the way of a natural gas pipeline beneath the front yards of homes on Carter Avenue lost a crucial round in court Thursday.A judge told Steve Doeung that he'll allow Chesapeake Energy's pipeline division to take possession of a right of way under Doeung's home.
Chesapeake wants to build a 16-inch gathering line to connect two gas-well sites along Interstate 30 just east of downtown. The company announced in the summer of 2008 that its route would run beneath the front yards of more than 30 homes on Carter Avenue, a residential street on the edge of the Meadowbrook neighborhood.
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Dallas Morning News
March 3, 2010
METHANE PLUME FOUND IN FLOWER MOUND
DISH -- An atmospheric researcher drove a specially equipped van in several Barnett Shale counties this week and found methane plumes near many natural gas facilities, with one plume in Flower Mound measuring 40 parts per million.
According to Chris Rella, director of research and development for California-based Picarro Inc., scientists consider about 1.8 ppm of methane to be a normal background level in the atmosphere.
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
STEFFEY: SCHUMER TILTING AT THE WRONG WINDMILLS
Idon't remember our furnace. By the time I was old enough to enter our basement, the only hint of it was a large patch in the concrete wall. My father, then co-owner of a family electrical contracting business, had it replaced in favor of electric heat.
But I remember the oil truck showing up regularly at our neighbors' house to fill their furnace as those Pennsylvania winters set in.
I found myself thinking about that oil truck after fielding a couple of reader comments about natural gas and diesel fuel, which I mentioned in Wednesday's column on T. Boone Pickens' energy plan. I thought about it again as I read the latest rant from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., about Texas windmills.
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Midland Reporter-Telegram
March 4, 2010
LAWSUIT DETAILS CAUSE OF NM OIL REFINERY EXPLOSION
Two days after an explosion and fire killed two Texas men at a southeastern New Mexico oil refinery, one of the injured survivors has filed a lawsuit that details the cause _ a welding accident on a large tank partially filled with tar.
Plaintiff Juan Carlos Hermosillo (AIR-moh-see-yo) of Hobbs sustained multiple fractures to both arms, a broken hip and back and facial cuts in Tuesday's explosion at Navajo Refinery in Artesia.
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Utilities Stories
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 4, 2010
ONCOR MIGHT SEEK ANOTHER RATE HIKE IF ELECTRIC CONSUMPTION STAYS LOWER
Oncor Electric Delivery, which was granted a rate increase late last year, will likely seek an additional rate hike late this year or early next year if the economy remains in the doldrums, spokesman Chris Schein said Thursday.
Schein said Oncor, as a result of reduced electricity consumption, isn't earning the rate of return that it is allowed by the Texas Public Utility Commission. "During slower-growth economic times, utilities need to go in more often for rate reviews," he said.
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Bloomberg
March 5, 2010
CHINA NATIONAL NUCLEAR MULLS IPO TO FINANCE EXPANSION
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- China National Nuclear Corp., the country’s biggest operator of atomic power plants, may sell shares publicly to fund overseas projects as demand for clean energy increases, President Sun Qin said.
China is urging nuclear equipment makers including rival China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group to partner with foreign firms to build reactors abroad, Sun said in an interview in Beijing today, without giving details on the proposed share sale.
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Bloomberg
March 5, 2010
UTILITIES MAY GO FIRST WITH CARBON RULES, CRANE SAYS
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. power companies may be willing to go first with new rules to curb greenhouse-gas pollution as long as they don’t have to go alone, NRG Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Crane said.
Lawmakers are trying to come up with an alternative approach after climate-change legislation backed by utilities stalled in Congress. One plan being mulled is a “cap-and- trade” program limited to the electricity sector, Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said in an interview yesterday.
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
IT'S A MARRIAGE MADE IN UTILITY HEAVEN
INDIANTOWN, FLA. — In former swamplands teaming with otters and wild hogs, one of the nation's biggest utilities is running an experiment in the future of renewable power.
Across 500 acres north of West Palm Beach, the FPL Group utility is assembling 190,000 mirrors and thousands of steel pylons that stretch as far as the eye can see. When it is completed by the end of the year, this project will be the world's second-largest solar plant.
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Corpus Christi Caller Times
March 5, 2010
HADDEN: NUCLEAR POWER RISKY, EXPENSIVE
CORPUS CHRISTI — Heavily subsidized by taxpayers and ratepayers, nuclear power is susceptible to delay, cost overruns and significant environmental risks. Investing billions into more nuclear power threatens to derail funding that would be better spent on energy efficiency and safer, cleaner renewable energy.
Moody’s advises investors that nuclear projects frequently lead to financial crunch and credit rating drops. The two South Texas Project reactors proposed for the existing Bay City site were supposed to lead the so-called “nuclear renaissance,” but there has been strong citizen and legal opposition and the cost has already skyrocketed.
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Power Gen Worldwide
March 5, 2010
A RETIRING UTILITY CEO LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
Roger Duncan, general manager of Austin Energy, spoke at our renewable energy conference Feb. 23. It was one of his last speeches as GM; he retired at the beginning of March. He offered a look ahead at what forms of generation will likely dominate. And he looked outeven farther than that at some ideas that could spawn disruptive technology in the coming decades. What follows is a transcript.
I want to talk at a high level of what I think is going to be happening over the next decade in the future of energy systems and then end with what I think lies in our far future in energy.
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Dallas Morning News
March 5, 2010
SMART METERS RANKLE SOME IN HOUSTON, TOO
As we noted this morning, Texas Sen. Troy Fraser is calling for a freeze on the installation of new smart meters because of complaints in his North Texas district that the new devices are leading to unusually high power bills.
It turns out North Texas isn't the only area where some customers have been cringing.
Maria Pineda, who manages an apartment complex in Northeast Houston, says tenant electric bills there have doubled since CenterPoint Energy installed smart meters a few months ago.
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Alternatives & Renewables Stories
Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
"WIND-GATE" OR BLOWING HARD?
Last year a Spanish university came out with a study saying that country's push for more renewable energy had cost it many thousands of jobs. The study was funded by a number of conservative groupsthe conservatie, free-market think tank The Institute for Energy Research, so naturally a bunch of other conservative groups trumpeted the study as proof the Obama administration's "green jobs" initiatives should be trashed.
Later, a federal research institute, The National Renewable Energy Lab wrote up a paper refuting the Spanish study. A Spanish official also told us recently the study author was pretty much an unknown among Spanish economists and said it was a "political issue."
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Dallas Morning News
March 5, 2010
TEXAS WIND PROJECT'S STIMULUS FUNDS MAY STALL OVER CHINESE PARTS, JOBS
WASHINGTON – A group of Democratic senators may seek to halt stimulus funding for wind-energy projects over concerns that the program is subsidizing jobs overseas.
The dispute was prompted by a proposed wind farm in West Texas, whose investors planned to use Chinese-made turbines and seek a $450 million stimulus grant. The senators insist that stimulus funds shouldn't go to projects that get most of their materials from abroad and create "the bulk of their jobs" in other countries.
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CNBC
March 4, 2010
ALGAE AS THE NEXT-GENERATION ENERGY SOURCE?
Biology can lead to changes in how the planet is powered, Synthetic Genomics CEO, Dr. J. Craig Ventor, told CNBC. He shared his research and progress with CNBC's "Power Lunch" crew.
"There's a lot of different avenues underway that biology can change the game for all of us," Venter said.
Ventor and his company have been collecting genomes around the world in search of a next-generation energy source, most notably algae-converted energy.
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San Antonio Express News
March 4, 2010
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PROJECTS COMING TO S.A. BASES
The new retail center at Randolph AFB is a candidate for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, and plans are under way to build a massive LEED-certified center on Fort Sam Houston... The design-build team for the $30.9 million project was composed of the Michigan-based Walbridge Corp. and the Ohio-based SSOE Group. Construction of the center used more than 20 percent recycled materials, and it features sustainable design as well as energy-efficient water cooling, light and air-conditioning systems. It will use at least 14 percent less energy than a similar building not constructed to LEED specifications, Hendricks said... Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group has been selected as the developer, leasing agent and property manager for what will be an $80 million construction project.
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Marketwatch
March 4, 2010
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: VALLEY VCS LONG FOR 'NETSCAPE MOMENT'
SANTA BARBARA (MarketWatch) -- John Doerr is perhaps best-known for backing Internet success stories like Netscape Communications Corp., Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. in their early days. But the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, turned his attention to alternative energy roughly six years ago -- and he's yet to score an equivalent hit.
Doerr, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., said the alternative-energy sector as a whole now needs a "Netscape moment," referring to the erstwhile company's blockbuster initial public offering of stock in 1995.
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Bloomberg
March 3, 2010
BP TO START BUILDING THREE U.S. WIND FARMS THIS YEAR AND NEXT
March 3 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, which has eight wind farms in the U.S., will start building three more in 2010 and 2011 as it expects to begin profiting from the operations this year.
BP Alternative Energy plans to start construction of the Goshen North wind park in Idaho at the end of the first quarter, the London-based company said in the February issue of its in- house Horizon magazine. The 124.5-megawatt facility will be completed later this year.
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CNBC
March 4, 2010
US SOLAR TURBINES, SUBSIDIARY OF CATERPILLAR, PLANS TO BUILD REPAIRS PLANT IN CZECH REPUBLIC
PRAGUE - U.S. industrial gas turbine producer Solar Turbines Incorporated, a subsidiary of U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. has signed a preliminary deal to build a plant for overhaul repairs of its products in the Czech Republic, a Czech government agency said Thursday.
The CzechInvest agency said in a statement that San-Diego based Solar Turbines signed a letter of intent to open the facility in the western town of Zatec that should serve Solar Turbines customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Several thousand of the company's turbines have been operating in the region and each of them needs to undergo a mandatory inspection and an overhaul program after 30,000 hours in operation, it said.
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Wall Street Journal
March 4, 2010
PICKENS TO DEVELOP 500 MW OF WIND POWER
SANTA BARBARA (Dow Jones)--Energy investor T. Boone Pickens said Thursday he is putting together deals to develop 500 megawatts of U.S. wind power with turbines made by General Electric Co. (GE), and will make a formal announcement in 30 days.
Pickens, who is chairman of hedge fund BP Capital Management, wouldn't say where the wind farms would be located, but he said they wouldn't be in the Texas Panhandle, despite its strong wind resources, because of a lack of transmission capacity. The facilities will be developed using 324 wind turbines made by GE.
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Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
March 5, 2010
WIND ENERGY EXPO SHOWS LOCAL RESIDENTS NEW PROFIT OPPORTUNITY
Dozens of South Plains residents attended the Wind Energy Expo on Thursday to learn how they could profit from two prominent and natural West Texas features.
“You’ve got good wind,” said David Tedford of Integra Wind Services in Oklahoma. “That’s the most important thing, but it’s also very workable land ... it’s really flat — it makes it a lot easier to construct wind turbines.”
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Des Moines Register
March 5, 2010
EASTERN STATES BALK AT PAYING WIND COST
Much of the nation isn't eager to help pay for a high-voltage transmission line to sell Iowa's extra wind power to big markets east of the Mississippi River.
"If Iowa wants to build a transmission line for their energy, we have no objection. But Iowa or the Midwest should pay for it," said Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs in Massachusetts. New England states want to produce their own wind energy from offshore farms.
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Seeking Alpha
March 4, 2010
FOSSIL FUEL PRODUCERS RAMP UP FIGHT AGAINST ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES
A fight brewing over the allocation of costs for transmission lines to connect wind and solar power plants to end users is the latest sign that fossil-fuel electricity producers are stepping up the fight against renewable energy sources.
A coalition of 10 big utilities this week announced it would oppose provisions in Senate bill 1462 that gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to broadly allocate costs for long-distance transmission lines linking power sources to power users.
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Houston Chronicle
March 4, 2010
BIOFUELS BOOSTERS SEEK TAX CREDIT TO JUMPSTART PRODUCTION
Biofuels advocates today implored lawmakers for new tax incentives to spur the creation of advanced new transportation fuels from plant parts, algae and other organic material.
The group -- including San Francisco-based BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, Denver-based Rentech and Bakersfield, Calif.-based Kern Oil and Refining Co. -- made their push in a letter to the top senators and representatives on the House and Senate tax-writing committees.
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Regulatory Stories
The Hill
March 4, 2010
EPA ISSUES CAUTIOUS RESPONSE TO ROCKEFELLER PLAN THAT BLOCKS RULES
EPA on Thursday declined to criticize Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) new bill that would block regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary industrial facilities like power plants and factories for two years.
His plan is less sweeping than Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) proposal that would completely nullify EPA’s power to impose limits on heat-trapping emissions.
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The Hill
March 4, 2010
ENVIRONMENTALISTS PUSH BACK AGAINST ROCKEFELLER
Environmental advocates are pushing back against efforts by Sen. Jay Rockefeller and others to keep EPA from regulating greenhouse gases for two years.
Joe Mendelson, director of Global Policy at the National Wildlife Federation, says the West Virginia Democrat “has taken a wrong turn by introducing this attack on the Clean Air Act, one of our nation's most effective and proven laws in protecting our air quality and public health.”
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Financial Times
March 4, 2010
HOW BAD IS CLIMATE TRADING FRAUD?
Remember the big carousel fraud discovered in European carbon markets last year? New Energy Finance, the research firm recently bought by Bloomberg, takes a dig at Europol’s estimate that it has cost €5bn in lost taxation, saying it doesn’t chime with their analysis:
New Energy Finance estimates that about 400 million metric tons of trades may have been fraudulent last year, or about 7 percent of the total market, including futures transactions.
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The Hill
March 4, 2010
LIEBERMAN: ARCTIC DRILLING A 'DEAL BREAKER'
A climate bill cannot include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
He said allowing ANWR drilling "would be a deal breaker."
“That is just not going to happen,” Lieberman told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday.
Republicans have long called for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Lieberman's comments come a day after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is considered a swing vote in the climate debate, said she wanted ANWR drilling included in the discussions and suggested it could be the price of winning her support.
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Wall Street Journal
March 5, 2010
DEMOCRATS REVOLT OVER ENERGY
President Barack Obama's energy strategy came under attack on at least three fronts Thursday, highlighting the conflict that has hobbled one of the administration's top domestic priorities.
On Thursday, big utility operators and some state officials blasted the administration's formal announcement that it would drop plans for a federal nuclear-waste vault beneath Yucca Mountain, Nev., and instead consider what it believes are better options. On Capitol Hill, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to block the administration from using the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers urged the administration not to use federal stimulus dollars to help finance a wind-energy project that involves a Chinese maker of wind turbines.
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New York Times
March 5, 2010
STUDY SAYS UNDERSEA RELEASE OF METHANE IS UNDER WAY
Climate scientists have long warned that global warming could unlock vast stores of the greenhouse gas methane that are frozen into the Arctic permafrost, setting off potentially significant increases in global warming.
Now researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and elsewhere say this change is under way in a little-studied area under the sea, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, west of the Bering Strait.
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Bloomberg
March 5, 2010
CHINA MAY START ITS FIRST CITY-WIDE CARBON MARKET
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- China may start its first city-wide carbon cap-and-trade system by June as the world’s biggest polluter seeks to rein in emissions, a project adviser said.
The northeast port city of Tianjin plans to impose a mandatory limit on energy used to heat buildings in the first half of this year, John Shi, chief executive officer of the carbon credit trader Arreon Carbon U.K. Ltd., said in an interview. Property managers able to reduce energy use to below the limit will earn credits they can then sell, he said.
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The Hill
March 4, 2010
DEMOCRAT'S AD EMBRACES CAP-AND-TRADE OPPOSITION
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) doesn’t seem to be sweating the criticism she's gotten from green groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters over her opposition to climate legislation.
Her first television ad since Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced he would challenge Lincoln in the primary promotes her opposition to cap and trade legislation, among other Democratic initiatives.
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Bloomberg
March 5, 2010
HATOYAMA SAYS DISSENT HAS ‘ALMOST GUTTED’ CLIMATE BILL DRAFT
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told lawmakers he doesn’t want a “watered-down” climate bill as the Cabinet tries to agree on key issues in the legislation before a self-imposed deadline next week.
The current draft has “almost been gutted” because of dissent, Hatoyama told an Upper House budget committee meeting broadcast on NHK television yesterday. Power utilities, steelmakers, and seven other industry groups oppose submitting the bill to the Diet without more discussion of key issues, such as a tax on big polluters and a national carbon-reduction target.
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The Hill
March 4, 2010
KERRY ON CLIMATE: LAWMAKERS MUST CHOOSE ‘WHETHER THEY ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR AMERICA OR AGAINST IT’
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) raised the rhetorical stakes in the Senate climate and energy fight Thursday.
Kerry, downplaying the climate angle, said the broad package he’s crafting with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will meet several U.S. goals – and present colleagues with a stark choice.
“What we are talking about is a jobs bill. It is not a climate bill. It is a jobs bill, and it is a clean air bill. It is a national security, energy independence bill,” he told reporters in the Capitol. “It is going to have very attractive, significant components in it to strengthen each of those pieces.”
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 Copyright March 12, 2010, Harvey Kronberg, www.texasenergyreport.com, All rights are reserved
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