Posted in Global Warming, tagged clean air act, greenhouse gas, public citizen texas, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency on March 5, 2011 |
Congressman Joe Barton’s (R-Ennis, TX) office says he might introduce Texas-specific legislation to limit the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency, but for now he’s signing on as a co-sponsor to a measure filed yesterday aimed at stopping the federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
Barton is putting together a coalition of government officials at all levels along with business and industry groups to present a united front against EPA policies that he and other Texas Republicans say are strangling the state’s economy.
If Barton does file a Texas-specific measure, it would likely seek to rollback the EPA’s decision last year to halt the state’s flexible permitting program, which Texasrefineries have been relying on for some 15 years to get around federal pollution laws.
The legislation Barton has signed on to is sponsored by Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, would effectively undo EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the agency has the authority to issue such a regulation.
Texas Republican John Cornyn is a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. Several Democratic congressmen from industrial states are also co-sponsoring the bills, even though many expect President Obama to veto any legislation that might reach his desk.
Texas is challenging the agency’s ruling in court on grounds that the state’s industries and refineries would be disproportionately harmed. At this time all other states have either adopted or put forth a plan to meet the current EPA standards.
Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, Transportation, tagged Carbon Dioxide, climate change, EPA, Global Warming, public citizen texas, Texas on February 21, 2011 |
The next time you bite into that double quarter-pounder with cheese, you may want to think twice about it. Literally though, once for your health and once for Mother Nature dearest.
The livestock and agricultural industry is the single largest producer of methane, one of the biggest contributors to global warming. In fact, 100 million tons of methane is produced each year by the animal agricultural business alone.
About 85% of the people I’ve talked to, had no idea that eating meat had such a big impact on the environment. It’s understandable that the general public cannot cease use of all fossil fuels, electricity, and gas-guzzling SUVs, but altering your diet toward a more plant-based focus is both one of the easiest things to do to decrease your carbon footprint, as well as quickest. You may not be in a position to trade in your car for the latest electric vehicle, but you can be aware of the choices you make at the grocery store. (more…)
Posted in Energy, tagged electric reliability council of texas, public citizen texas, rolling blackouts, Texas, Texas Senate Hearings on February 15, 2011 |
Senator Troy Fraser, the chair of Senate Natural Resources Committee, warned the major electric generation companies this afternoon that unless they move swiftly to shore up their power plants against extreme weather, they can expect more regulations from state government.
Fraser said he would prefer free market solutions, but is prepared to impose new regulations, letting everyone in the room know that they were going to be leaning on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the Railroad Commission, but clearly directing his remarks at the top executives of Luminant, NRG Texas and Direct Energy, who were there to testify as a panel during the hearing.
The following is Public Citizen’s testimony at today’s Senate (Business and Commerce and Natural Resources) hearing on the rolling blackouts. Public Citizen’s was the only public testimony given today, following the sea of invited testimony from agencies, retail electric providers, and electric generation companies. If you want to watch the archived video of the hearing, click here. (more…)
Posted in Energy, tagged electricity, Energy, public citizen texas, Rolling blackout, Texas on February 10, 2011 |
Will my rates go up because of last week’s electricity mess? That’s a question that the Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that promotes civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern, asked and their answer starts out:
Lots of Texans are asking that question in the wake of last week’s rolling blackouts, and nobody’s going to be happy with the answer, which is: “It depends” (if you ask the electricity industry); or “Yes” (if you ask consumer advocates).
Click here to read the complete Texas Tribune article.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas
Posted in Global Warming, tagged electric reliability council of texas, Electricity generation, natural gas, public citizen texas, Rolling blackout, Texas, Texas Railroad Commission on February 8, 2011 |
The Texas Railroad Commission added an emergency item to their agenda today so it could hear from the Texas Energy Reliability Council about natural gas service’s impact on the rolling blackouts that swept the state. They told the Commission that Texas was never in danger of a natural gas shortage during last week’s statewide deep freeze and no electric generating company with an “uninterruptible” contract for gas had to do without.
Of course, one could also read that as gas supplies could have been interupted at generating facilities that chose to purchase their fuel under contracts offered at a lower price, but with the risk that delivery cannot be absolutely guaranteed in all circumstances. That is, in fact what happened, so if those plants had been able to get delivery of natural gas, it is possible that the state might have been in danger of a natural gas shortage.
During the prolonged winter storm, gas production in the Barnett Shale was shut down as well as some others around the state. But that short-term gap in supply was filled by tapping reserves warehoused in underground salt domes, at least for those power plants that had uninteruptable contracts.
But be forwarned, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warns that more blackouts might be needed as state braces for Arctic Blast Round 2 and issued another plea for conservation, especially during the peak-use hours of 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., saying the grid is still down some 2,700 megawatts of capacity and that rolling blackouts might return with the next round of sub-freezing weather.
ERCOT said tomorrow’s peak demand is projected to exceed 54,000 megawatts between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. , and then top 58,000 megawatts between 7 and 8 Thursday morning. That would surpass the current winter peak demand record of 56,334 megawatts, which occurred Feb. 2.
Today’s hearing at the Railroad Commission was the first public review of the circumstances surrounding the rolling blackouts. It focused solely on natural gas supplies and production.
A more comprehensive hearing will occur Feb. 15 when the Senate Business and Commerce Committee meets jointly with the Natural Resources Committee to review issues surrounding the outages.
If you want to watch today’s hearing, you can catch it online at www.texasadmin.com.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas
Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged Fuelberg, money laundering, pedernales electric cooperative, public citizen texas, Texas on February 8, 2011 |
Bennie Fuelberg
Former Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Bennie Fuelberg has been sentenced to five years’ probation, 300 days in county jail, 1,000 hours of community service and $126,000 in restitution which goes to the co-op’s former law firm Clark, Thomas and Winters, and its insurance company, which paid a $4.1 million settlement to the co-op last year. The sentence is for a conviction on third-degree felony theft of co-op funds, money laundering and misappropriation of fiduciary property. The co-op, which had rejected a prosecution proposal directing Fuelberg to pay Pedernales $100,000, gets no money.
The charges could have carried a maximum prison term of 10 years, but Fuelberg got less than a year of actual jail time.
Demond, a former attorney with Clark, Thomas & Winters, faces trial on the same theft and money laundering charges later this year.
Turns out, the reason for only 300 days of jail time is the judge gave Fuelberg the option of reducing his jail time by accepting responsibility for his crime — including waiving his right to appeal — and testifying against attorney Walter Demond. Demond, a former partner at Clark Thomas, who faces trial later this year on the same felony theft, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property charges as Fuelberg.
Posted in Energy, tagged electricity, Energy, Kilowatt hour, public citizen texas, Public utilities commission, Texas on February 8, 2011 |
. . .But deregulation is the color of money
And deregulation can be cool and shopping-like
And deregulation can be big like a variable rate plan, or important
Like a TXU/Oncor, or tall like a wind turbine.
Deregulation of the Texas electric market brought us the “POWER TO CHOOSE.” You can check out the Public Utilities Commission’s site to learn about electric competition in Texas and shop for electricity providers. But be forewarned, sorting through the options can be time-consuming and confusing. Customers can pick a provider based on price; whether power is produced by coal, wind or natural gas; the length of the contract; and whether the price is fixed or adjustable, like a mortgage. But it’s what you don’t know as you sort through all the information that can cost you money.
For instance, the quoted rate might not include transmission and distribution charges, monthly customer charges or other recurring fees buried in the fine print. Some companies may require a deposit, assess a hefty fee if you end your contract or charge higher rates if you use too little electricity. A rate of 10 cents per kilowatt hour might apply if you use a certain amount of power each month; but if you use less, the rate might be 20 percent higher.
So if you are in the market for a new provider, keep these things in mind. Below we’ve included a list of key questions you might want to ask your provider before signing on the dotted line. (more…)
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Energy, Matira; Gas, natural gas, public citizen texas, Texas, Texas Railroad Commission on February 7, 2011 |
The Texas Railroad Commission added an emergency item to tomorrow’s agenda so it can hear from the Texas Energy Reliability Council about last week’s rolling blackouts impact on natural gas service.
The meeting starts at 9:30 am on Tuesday, February 8th at the William B. Travis Building. Watch it online at www.texasadmin.com.
Posted in Energy, tagged Brian Lloyd, electric reliability council of texas, public citizen texas, Rolling blackout, Texas on February 7, 2011 |
Brian Lloyd, the executive director of the Public Utility Commission has directed the electric reliability monitor (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and the electric market monitor (Potomic Economics) to investigate all of the events surrounding last week’s rolling blackouts and electric generation failures. This includes “all preparations” made by ERCOT and all actions taken once the emergency was in full force. He has also directed them to pay particular attention to whether rules governing market manipulation and potential price gouging were violated.
Below is Lloyd’s letter.
Posted in Energy, tagged electric reliability council of texas, lon burnam, public citizen texas, Rolling blackout, Texas on February 4, 2011 |
Wednesday, State Rep. Lon Burnam and his staff got little in the way of a satisfactory answer from ERCOT as to why as many as 50 power plants were off line, and predicted that the issue will remain a hot topic especially in light of the fact that ERCOT is up for a sunset review this session. He also raised the question about who stands to benefit from this event and he is not the only one.
Public Citizen and Sierra Club called on Governor Perry and the Commissioners at the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, (ERCOT) to investigate the cause of the outages and the response by the state’s regulated and unregulated electrical utilities and who profited.
In the early hours on Wednesday, prices on the wholesale electricity market shot up 66 times from 3:00 AM through 11:00 AM and the electricity companies made millions overnight as electricity prices rose to the cap of $3,000.
John Fainter, who heads the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, told the Texas Energy Report that such price spikes cannot be immediately passed on to ordinary customers in the competitive market who have fixed-rate contracts, but you can bet that eventually ratepayers will pick up that cost and some generators will rake in a windfall.
Fainter also said that allegations that some suppliers might have engaged in market manipulation to drive up the price is extremely hard to prove because you have to show that power that was otherwise available was deliberately withheld until it got to a certain price. (watch the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room to see how this works.)
We don’t disagree with Fainter’s assessment, but still believe that the wide price spike should be investigated.
Thursday, the need for continuing the series of rolling blackouts was lifted by ERCOT mid-morning. But the state’s generating capacity was still down by some 3,000 megawatts that afternoon. ERCOT said that voluntary efforts on the part of Texas residential and commercial users to curb consumption helped alleviate the crisis while insisting the state’s electric grid was never in danger of suffering a crippling catastrophic failure.
So kudos to all you Texas consumers who suffered in the cold and dark during the blackouts and then, girded by soup, hot drinks and blankets, continued to help out the utilities and the regulators by turning down your thermostats, turning off your TVs and computers, and paying your electric bills. Must stop writing now, since in doing my part, my thermostat is set to 58 degrees and my fingers are numb.
Click here to read an article by Forrest Wilder for the Texas Observer on utility profiteering during the rolling blackouts.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas
Posted in Renewables, tagged Coal, electric reliability council of texas, public citizen texas, Renewables, rolling blackouts, Texas, TXU on February 3, 2011 |
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said cold weather had knocked out about 50 of the 550 power plants in Texas, totaling 8,000 megawatts. We can’t tell you which plants were down because that information is considered “confidential under market rules.” According to ERCOT’s website, its market rules “are developed by participants from all aspects of the electricity industry” and reviewed by the Public Utility Commission. This coupled with an increase in demand caused the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to launch the longest period of planned outages in state history, affecting 1.4 million consumers before being halted mid-afternoon.
What we do know is wind energy played a major role in keeping the blackouts from becoming more severe. Between 5 and 7 am yesterday morning (the peak of the electricity shortage) wind was providing between 3,500 and 4,000 MW, roughly the amount it had been forecast and scheduled to provide. That is about 7% of the state’s total electricity demand at that time, or enough for about 3 million average homes. (more…)
Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged Coal, electric reliability council of texas, Power outage, public citizen texas, Texas on February 2, 2011 |
A massive winter storm rolled through Texas last night causing 7,000 megawatts worth of power plants to shut down and in the wee hours of the morning, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator, declared an energy emergency.
ERCOT called on state energy suppliers to cut about 4,000 megawatts worth of power demand equal to about 2.9 million homes, leaving homes dark and without heat for up to an hour (some folks for even longer), causing some schools and businesses to shut and creating traffic snarls as traffic lights stopped working during rush hour. (more…)
Posted in natural gas, tagged Diesel fuel, hydraulic fracturing, public citizen texas, safe drinking water act, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency on February 2, 2011 |
Drilling companies injected more than 32 million gallons of fluids containing diesel into the ground during hydraulic fracturing operations from 2005 to 2009, according to federal lawmakers. About a third of the 32 million gallons was straight diesel fuel, with 49.8% of the 32.2 million gallons of fluid containing diesel injected into Texas wells. Texas lead the 19 states using diesel as a fracking fluid, followed by Oklahoma at 10% of the 32.2 million gallons.
Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling technique that involves pumping millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals into underground formations to release greater quantities of gas and oil. The technique dates back several decades, but it has drawn new scrutiny from the public and regulators as its use has grown in recent years.
Concerns include the potential for the chemicals to get into drinking water or for natural gas to migrate into water wells. While the industry says that such an incident rarely happens and can easily be avoided, some homeowners near Fort Worth would probably wouldn’t buy that claim.
Most hydraulic fracturing fluid uses water as its primary component, but in formations where water is absorbed too easily – such as in certain kinds of clay – diesel is used as an additive.
The EPA and industry agreed in 2003 that diesel wouldn’t be used in hydraulic fracturing jobs in coal bed methane formations, because drilling in those formations tends to be closer to drinking water sources. At this time, none of the companies that used diesel as a fracking fluid could provide data on whether they performed hydraulic fracturing in or near underground sources of drinking water.
Lawmakers are asking the EPA to look at diesel use in its study into the safety of hydraulic fracturing.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Low level waste, Nuclear Power, public citizen texas, radioactive waste, Texas, vermont, vermont law school on February 1, 2011 |
Governor Peter Shumlin, the newly sworn in Governor of Vermont, has appointed Montpelier attorney Richard Saudek and Vermont Law School professor Peter Bradford to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission (TLLRWCC). The TLLRWCC is an 8 member legal entity, separate and distinct from the party states, whose commissioners are appointed by the Governors of Texas and Vermont. The Commission consists of six Texas and two Vermont appointees.
The commission are responsible for administering the provisions of the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact. The States of Vermont and Texas are the party states. Texas is the host state for a low level radioactive waste disposal facility.
Saudek, who is a partner in the law firm of Cheney, Brock & Saudek, P.C., has advised legislative committees on issues involving Vermont Yankee and its owner, Entergy Corp. Saudek has also served as Chair of the Vermont Department of Public Service, and as Vermont’s first Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service.
Bradford is an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School, where he teaches ‘Nuclear Power and Public Policy.’ He also teaches utility regulation, restructuring, nuclear power and energy policy. Bradford served on the Public Oversight Panel for the Comprehensive Vertical Assessment of Vermont Yankee, and has served as an expert witness on investment in new nuclear power.
Public Citizen is very pleased with Mr. Bradford’s appointment and believes Mr. Saudek will also make a good addition to this industry skewed commission.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
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