Tag Archives: energy

The Texas Tribune reports: Texans no longer need to cut back on their electricity use to avoid stressing the electrical grid, according to the current grid conditions on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas website. Consumers may return to normal usage of electricity after a week that stressed the grid — and Texans’ anxieties. For five days, ERCOT warned that …

The Daily Dot reports: Power companies in Texas are remotely raising temperatures inside of some customers’ homes amid the state’s ongoing energy shortage. Residents with Google’s Nest thermostats received messages noting that their temperatures had been adjusted during an “Energy Rush Hour.” The issue comes shortly after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid manager, called …

The Dallas Morning News reports: The electric vehicle maker Canoo announced Thursday that it would take a mega-factory and thousands of high-paying jobs to the Tulsa region, citing Oklahoma’s “energy-forward initiatives.” North Texas was “definitely in the race” in the multistate competition for the new assembly plant, but Texas energy infrastructure issues and other factors led the company to choose …

Fox News reports: Texans scared of summer power outages are rushing to purchase generators. According to a report from Fox 7, local hardware shops and manufacturers alike are seeing an exponential increase in demand for the machines. The Houston Chronicle reported earlier this week that electricians say there is a backlog of customers waiting to have them installed. This comes …

Houston’s ABC News affiliate reports: Texans are being asked to conserve power yet again, as the state works to prevent rolling blackouts. The request comes due to a significant number of forced generation outages combined with the potential for record electric use this month. ERCOT is asking everyone to set their thermostat to 78 degrees when at home, and higher …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas’ main power grid struggled to keep up with the demand for electricity Monday, prompting the operator to ask Texans to conserve power until Friday. The conservation request comes at a time of heightened anxiety around electricity following the state’s catastrophic February power outages that left millions without power for days. Those outages that were prompted …

The Texas Tribune reports: Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Tuesday two bills meant to improve the state’s main power grid and change the governance of the agency that operates it. Calls for sweeping changes to Texas’ power infrastructure have amplified since February, when a catastrophic winter storm left more than 4.8 million homes and businesses without power for days. …

NPR reports: The Transportation Security Administration, in the wake of the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that caused widespread gasoline disruptions earlier this month, has announced new reporting requirements for pipeline operators. In a security directive, the TSA, which oversees pipeline cybersecurity, said it will now require that pipeline operators report any cyberattacks on their systems to the federal …

Ars Technica reports: Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office knew of looming natural gas shortages on February 10, days before a deep freeze plunged much of the state into blackouts, according to documents obtained by E&E News and reviewed by Ars. Abbott’s office first learned of the likely shortfall in a phone call from then-chair of the Public Utility Commission of …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Joseph Blount, CEO of Colonial Pipeline Co., told The Wall Street Journal that he authorized the ransom payment of $4.4 million because executives were unsure how badly the cyberattack had breached its systems or how long it would take to bring the pipeline back. “I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Mr. Blount said in …

ABC News reports: President Biden plans to address the nation Thursday on the attack on the Colonial Pipeline that led to panic buying and fuel shortages. He also is scheduled to convene an Oval Office meeting with six Republican senators as he continues to try to build support for a sweeping infrastructure package. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% …

CBS News reports: Colonial Pipeline announced Wednesday that it has begun restarting pipeline operations after a cyberattack forced the company to take some of its systems offline last Friday. News of the attack sparked panic in some regions of the country, with residents lining up at the pump over fears of a gas shortage. The company said it initiated the …

The Washington Post reports: Panic-buying has emptied 28 percent of North Carolina’s fuel stations and is exacerbating gasoline shortages across the Southeast, underscoring the real-world implications of a cyberattack that forced Colonial Pipeline offline last week. More than 17 percent of the stations in Georgia and Virginia were dry Wednesday, according to GasBuddy, and states as far as West Virginia …

Reuters reports: Supplies of gasoline tightened further in parts of the United States on Tuesday as the shutdown of the nation’s biggest fuel pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day, raising concern about price spikes at the pumps heading into the summer driving season. The Colonial Pipeline said it was working to “substantially” resume operations by the end of this …

The Guardian reports: The Biden administration has invoked emergency powers as part of an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to avoid fuel shortages after the worst-ever cyber-attack on US infrastructure shut down a crucial pipeline supplying the east coast. The federal transport department issued an emergency declaration on Sunday to relax regulations for drivers carrying gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum …

The Texas Tribune reports: An approximately $2.5 billion plan to bail out Texas’ distressed electricity market from the financial crisis caused by Winter Storm Uri in February was approved by the Texas House Thursday. The legislation would impose a fee — likely for the next decade or longer — on electricity companies, which would then get passed on to residential …

The Texas Tribune reports: A plan to help finance what will likely become mandatory power plant upgrades to withstand more extreme weather in the wake of the February power crisis received preliminary approval in the Texas House on Monday. The failure of power plants to produce power during very cold temperatures was a major cause of the February power outages …

The Washington Post reports: With its ill-equipped natural gas systems clocked by the cold, Texas’s exports across the Rio Grande froze up and 4.7 million customers in northern Mexico went without electricity — more than in Texas itself. The spot price of gas jumped 30-fold as far west as Southern California. And all the way up by the Canadian border, …

The Houston Chronicle reports: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas will argue that it has governmental immunity that protects it from the at least 35 lawsuits that have been filed against the operator after February’s disastrous winter storm which killed dozens of people and created millions of dollars of damages. “ERCOT has and will continue to assert that it is …

NBC News reports: As millions of Texans went without power for days during February’s devastating storm, Texas oil and gas regulators were circulating talking points from a noted climate skeptic blaming system failures on the state’s embrace of wind and solar energy, emails obtained by NBC News show. The talking points from Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for …