“Power Reports Battle It Out” and Other Energy News from the Houston Chronicle

Michael Giberson

The Houston Chronicle has long been one of the best newspapers for energy news, perhaps why it is frequently cited here at KP.* (You can subscribe to an RSS feed focused on Chronicle energy stories.) Over the last few days:

  • Power reports battle it out” — “A new crop of studies offering competing takes on Texas’ electricity markets has been released in recent weeks, all part of a biennial ritual aimed at promoting or preventing new laws in the regular Texas legislative session that convenes every other year.”
  • Texas power grid project to cost twice as much” — “A project aimed at preventing problems like the price spikes that helped drive some electric retailers out of business last spring will be twice as expensive and two years overdue, the state’s main power grid operator said Wednesday.”
  • TXU sibling to pay fine in power price case” — “The power plant operator formerly known as TXU Wholesale has agreed to pay $15 million to settle allegations it manipulated Texas power prices, just a fraction of the $210 million fine regulators originally proposed.”
  • Biodiesel tax break backfires: U.S. producers reap federal subsidy while selling most of the fuel overseas” — “Federal subsidies to the U.S. biodiesel industry were supposed to help wean the nation from foreign oil, and a new law in 2009 will bolster the effort, but the money has fueled a controversial side business… selling huge quantities of biodiesel in Europe and in other foreign markets, where prices are often better.”

They’ll also reprint good material from elsewhere:

The Washington Post‘s own online title for that last story soft-pedaled the ‘money losing’ angle: The Car of the Future — but at What Cost?

*By my count, newspapers in order of frequency of citation on KP: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, then others.