Tag Archives: natural gas

ERCOT and the AI demand boom

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Once again we ask, can our grid keep up? The rapid expansion of data centers, fueled by the rise of artificial intelligence platforms and the increasing digitization of the economy, is driving a surge in electricity demand in Texas and … Continue reading →

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SCOTx declines to revive oligarch nuisance lawsuit against Beto

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The Texas Supreme Court said Friday it would not consider Republican megadonor Kelcy Warren’s defamation lawsuit against former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke after a state appeals court dismissed it earlier this year. The all-GOP court denied Warren’s petition … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: Martinez in I, and wait, what?

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron made a perfectly fine endorsement. It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of outgoing Councilmember Robert Gallegos. As the lone Hispanic around the horseshoe, he has robustly represented his hometown and the most Hispanic district in Houston for nearly a … Continue reading →

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Oligarch nuisance lawsuit against Beto finally tossed

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Sure took long enough. A state appeals court dismissed Republican megadonor Kelcy Warren’s defamation lawsuit against Beto O’Rourke, ruling Friday that statements by the 2022 Democratic nominee for governor were protected by the First Amendment. The Austin-based 3rd Court of … Continue reading →

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More on the PUC’s attempt to fix the grid

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

From TPR: After the last big blackout, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 3, telling the commission to improve grid reliability. So, commissioners have been working on changing the state’s electricity market. They want to reform how energy is bought and … Continue reading →

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PUC makes an attempt to fix the grid

Posted on January 21, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

People are skeptical. The Public Utility Commission voted Thursday to make a substantial change to the state’s electricity market in a controversial effort to get the whole system to be more reliable. The agency said it will let the Legislature … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nobody knows the state of the gas supply in Texas

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

That can be a problem during freezes. You know, like the one we had over Christmas. As questions continue to swirl about widespread outages Atmos Energy customers experienced in North Texas and beyond last week, the opacity of Texas’ sprawling … Continue reading →

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ERCOT makes it through, with an assist from the feds

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. A day after ERCOT asked the U.S. Department of Energy for an emergency order allowing its generators to bypass emissions standards to stave off potential outages, Texas’ electric grid met demand with ease on Saturday. … Continue reading →

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Beto tries again to get ridiculous defamation lawsuit dismissed

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Hope he has better luck here. The gubernatorial election is over, but Kelcy Warren’s defamation lawsuit against Beto O’Rourke lives on. Warren, the Dallas pipeline tycoon, sued O’Rourke in February over accusations he made on the campaign trail that Warren … Continue reading →

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By the way, the grid is still not fixed

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. A federal assessment indicates the Texas electricity grid remains almost as vulnerable to extreme winter weather as it was when it nearly collapsed during a prolonged deep freeze in February 2021 — although state utility … Continue reading →

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Beto still seeking to dismiss oligarch’s lawsuit against him

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Might have better luck this time around. Remember last year when Gov. Greg Abbott’s biggest donor sued gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke for defamation, slander, and libel? Well, that’s still going on. The legal fight has moved into a state appeals … Continue reading →

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More on the oligarch suing Beto

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

From the Observer; I’m picking it up after the initial statements by Beto that got Kelcy Warren’s undies in such a wad: Free-speech advocates and many legal scholars have long decried these sort frivolous lawsuits—known as SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits … Continue reading →

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Beto responds to oligarch’s lawsuit

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Game on. Democrat Beto O’Rourke is blasting a pipeline company executive and top donor to Greg Abbott’s re-election campaign for filing a defamation lawsuit against him as he tries to unseat the two-term Republican governor. O’Rourke’s attorney filed a legal … Continue reading →

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One of Abbott’s billionaire patrons just sued Beto

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

OMG, this is amazing. The former CEO of one of the nation’s biggest pipeline companies and a major donor to Gov. Greg Abbott is suing Democrat Beto O’Rourke for defamation, slander, and libel for talking about his company’s role in … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

In case you’d forgotten, we still haven’t fixed the power grid

Posted on February 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It has other problems too, which we also haven’t addressed. Millions of Texans lost power in February 2021. Hundreds died as a result. Tens of billions of dollars in damages were lost. Billions were just transferred from consumers by government … Continue reading →

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How the grid held up

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Basically, this cold front wasn’t anything like last year’s cold front. Texas’s power grid passed its biggest test since last year’s deadly blackouts, keeping most lights on during a wintry blast. This storm, however, was far less severe than last … Continue reading →

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We are so screwed if there’s a real cold front

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

[bangs head on desk]. During Texas’ first strong cold front of the winter this past weekend, natural gas production in the state’s top energy-producing region dropped by about 25%, according to a report from S&P Global. And while the lights … Continue reading →

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Nobody bullshits like Greg Abbott

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Some stories I blog about require subtle thought and detailed analysis. Others pretty much speak for themselves. The two most powerful people overseeing Texas’ electric grid sat next to each other in a quickly arranged Austin news conference in early … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

ERCOT and PUC swear there will be no blackouts this winter

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Do you believe them? The Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Wednesday pledged that the “lights will stay on” this winter as it inspects power generators and enforces other requirements to avoid a deadly power … Continue reading →

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Our cow poop future

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a resource we have a lot of, to be sure. TotalEnergies plans to build its first biomethane plant in the Texas Panhandle to produce renewable transportation fuel from cow manure. The French oil major on Tuesday said it has … Continue reading →

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Greg Abbott’s bet

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

What, me worry about blackouts? Gov. Greg Abbott promised that the state’s electric grid would be able to withstand pressures caused by any potential winter storm that occurs this year in a television interview Friday. “Listen, very confident about the grid. … Continue reading →

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We’re still vulnerable to blackouts

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

So says ERCOT. Electricity outages in Texas could occur this winter if the state experiences a cold snap that forces many power plants offline at the same time as demand for power is high, according to an analysis by the … Continue reading →

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FERC report on the freeze

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It was lack of weatherization all along. A shortage of natural gas during the winter storm that swept Texas and other states in the south central United States in February was primarily caused by the oil and gas industry’s failure … Continue reading →

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Those pesky high utility rates

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Still a problem. Those of us who lived through Winter Storm Uri have hardly forgotten the experience, of course. But we’ll have a little reminder of it on our gas bills. Every month. For the next decade. At least. And … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Luke Warford announces for Railroad Commissioner

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

He’s got the right idea about what to run on. A 32-year-old former top staffer for the Texas Democratic Party is running for a spot on the three-person commission regulating the state’s oil and gas industry, hoping to unseat Republican … Continue reading →

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Our latest wake-up call about our power grid

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Same song, next verse. Federal energy officials vowed to ensure that Texas improves its electricity grid and natural gas system after widespread blackouts during the February freeze led to more than 200 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage. … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Please enjoy the higher natural gas prices you’ll soon be paying

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

And by “enjoy”, I mean “blame Greg Abbott”. Texans are on the hook for $3.6 billion in natural gas costs incurred by utilities during one freezing week in February — a burden consumers will bear for a decade or longer. … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A timeline of the blackout

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. A new report from University of Texas at Austin energy experts lays much of the blame for power outages during the state’s deadly February freeze on the failure of natural gas producers to fully weatherize their facilities.” The … Continue reading →

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One million reasons why Greg Abbott thinks the grid is just fine

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Or 2.4 billion reasons, depending on how you want to count it. The Texas electric grid collapse during the February winter storm killed hundreds of Texans and caused an estimated $295 billion in damages, while generating seismic gains for a … Continue reading →

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Abbott tells the PUC to, like, “do something” about electricity and stuff

Posted on July 8, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

He’s a Very Serious man making Very Serious proposals. Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday gave state electricity regulators marching orders to “improve electric reliability.” In a letter to the Public Utility Commission, Abbott directed the three-person board of directors, who … Continue reading →

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We’ll be paying for the freeze for a long time

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

What’s more, we have done nothing to prevent the same thing from happening again. Publicly funded state agencies needing to keep the lights and heat on during the freeze racked up huge bills. In February 2020, the Texas Department of … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Nobody knows why the grid was short on power

Posted on June 26, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Really inspires confidence, doesn’t it? Last Monday, Texas’ main power grid operator asked Texans, mid-heat wave, to turn their thermostats to 78 degrees during the afternoon and evening for the week to reduce electricity demand on the grid after 12,000 … Continue reading →

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We go to the next freeze with the power grid reform we have, not the power grid reform we wanted

Posted on June 5, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It is what it is, and what it is isn’t much. Texas lawmakers on Sunday passed a final proposal to shore up the state’s power grid in response to this year’s deadly outage crisis, agreeing on a raft of reforms … Continue reading →

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Are we headed for a June special session or not?

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Too soon to tell. Right now this is just the usual end-of-session venting and frustration. With the future of the power grid and voting laws in Texas hanging in the balance, tensions among the top political leaders in the Legislature … Continue reading →

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