February 18, 2021 archive

Iowa legislators work on ethanol mandate at the pumps

  The Iowa legislature has started working on bills to create an ethanol mandate at the gas pumps across the state, one promoted by Gov. Kim Reynolds. She contends it will help an industry that’s been battered by the EPA and its resistance for a federal mandate. As Radio Iowa reported this week, bills calling …

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Nebraska governor calls rolling blackouts “unacceptable”

    Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts wasn’t happy this week even after his state avoided another round of rolling blackouts and was critical of the need for them in the first place. “These rolling blackouts are completely unacceptable,” Ricketts said. “This is the United States of America. We are not some developing nation who has …

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President declares emergency in Oklahoma

  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt reached out to the federal government and asked for a national declaration over the historic winter storm that kept the state in a literal deep freeze for nearly two weeks. And it didn’t take long for President Biden to act and give the assistance. The President quickly declared that an …

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One Texas city escaped the massive power outages

  While millions of Texas residents suffered power outages for the past several days in the historic winter storm, those who live in El Paso escaped such losses of power. Why? Because El Paso is not part of the Texas power grid. Instead, it belongs to the Western power grid which covers 14 Western states, …

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Texas governor bans out-of-state natural gas sales

  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved this week to stop the out-of-state sales of any natural gas produced in Texas as millions of residents deal with rolling blackouts and frigid winter weather. He issued the order and noted that some producers had been exporting their natural gas to areas outside the state. “I have issued …

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Historic storm left Occidental Petroleum with no choice—

  Force Majeure just reared its ugly head in oil production across the Permian Basin, an oil-rich region where production was already down more than 1 million barrels of oil a day. It’s the term thrown out Oklahoma Corporation Commission meeting this week as regulators debated how to order utilities to focus on customers as …

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Power outages improved in Oklahoma

  As the grip of the deadly winter storm lessens across the state of Oklahoma, the electrical power supply had improved as of Thursday morning. The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives reported only 9 customers without power and they were in Grady and Stephens Counties. Oklahoma Gas & Electric had a reported 1,000 restoration workers …

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