As renewable energy growth advances across Texas and more electricity is coming from wind and solar, it also presents a quandry for the state’s power grid. Texas doesn’t share the renewable electricity with other states and it avoids any federal oversight. On the other hand, it also means should Texas suffer intense power outages, …
Category: Wind Energy
Energy briefs
** Some of the top US oil refiners are throttling back operations at their facilities this quarter, adding to concerns that a global glut of crude is forming. Marathon Petroleum Corp. — owner of the largest US refinery — plans to operate its 13 plants at an average of 90% of capacity this quarter, the …
Court rules against Grainbelt Express line
Another legal setback for the Grain Belt Express, the proposed transmission line that would carry wind-powered electricity from southwest Kansas, across Missouri and Illinois and to Indiana. An Appeals Court recently reversed a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity granted to Grant Belt Express by the Illlinois Commerce Commission. The 5th Ditrict Appellate Court …
Energy briefs
** Chrysler-parent Stellantis is laying off as many as 2,450 factory workers from its Warren Truck assembly plant outside of Detroit as the automaker ends production of the Ram 1500 Classic truck. ** The Biden administration is proposing to restrict the federal lands that are open for future coal mining in North Dakota — though …
Energy briefs
** More than a dozen House Republicans wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday asking him not to axe clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if the GOP maintains or expands its House majority next year. ** The reaction to selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be running mate to …
Energy briefs
** Navajo Nation tribal President Buu Nygren issued an executive order banning the transportation of uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine through reservation property in Arizona. ** The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an emergency order Tuesday to remove from the market a pesticide linked to fetal damage, its first such action in nearly four …
Energy briefs
** Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled a bill recently to delay new vessel speed limits on the Atlantic coast. Whale advocates say the legislation would doom the North Atlantic right whale to extinction. The bill, the “Protecting Whales, Human Safety, and the Economy Act of 2024,” S. 4948, was introduced Friday. ** The …
Energy briefs
** Facing the need to win battleground Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris is swearing off any prior assertion that she opposed fracking, but that hasn’t stopped Republican Donald Trump from wielding her now-abandoned position to win over voters in a state where the natural gas industry means jobs. ** Former President Donald Trump said he had “no choice” but to …
Residents and landowners fight NextEra Energy wind farm in Colorado
A new “No Wind Turbines” campaign is growing on the plains of eastern Colorado. It’s against NextEra Energy’s proposed third phase of a series of wind turbines that dot the land east of Colorado Springs. The turbines would represent a growth of the wind farm that was developed nine years ago. But residents …
Energy briefs
** Exxon Mobil on Friday posted a better-than-expected $9.2 billion second-quarter profit based on rising oil prices and volume gains from its purchase this year of shale oil firm Pioneer Natural Resources. Exxon delivered a $2.14 per share profit that beat analysts’ estimates on oil production and pricing gains that offset refining weakness. ** A U.S. circuit …