Climate

Natural gas is on a road leading to increased markets in electric generation and transportation that are driven by climate change mitigation efforts to reduce our societal carbon footprint, according to Thomas Powers, marketing executive for El Paso Corp.’s western pipelines unit.

Natural gas is at a crossroads leading to increased markets in electric generation and transportation that are driven by climate change mitigation efforts to reduce our societal carbon footprint, according to the marketing executive for El Paso Corp.’s western pipelines unit, Thomas Powers, who delivered a luncheon address at the “LDC Forum: Rockies and the West” Tuesday in Los Angeles.

More than 242,000 acres in the Vermillion Basin region of northwestern Colorado, considered to hold huge amounts of natural gas, would be off limits to drillers under a proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP), the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said last week.

The shale-induced brimming natural gas supply is one of three “major themes” — the other two being world oil prices and climate change policy — that will drive U.S. energy policy in the years ahead, said the head of a Washington, DC-based nonprofit energy and environmental research group last Tuesday. Energy Secretary Steven Chu called shale gas a “big deal” because “gas will be [the] transition fuel as [we] go to renewables.”

The bulging natural gas supply is one of the three “major themes” — the other two being world oil prices and climate change policy — that will drive U.S. energy policy in the years ahead, said the head of a Washington, DC-based nonprofit energy and environmental research group Tuesday. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu called shale gas a “big deal” because “gas will be [the] transition fuel as [we] go to renewables.”

The bulging natural gas supply is one of the three “major themes” — the other two being world oil prices and climate change policy — that will drive U.S. energy policy in the years ahead, said the head of a Washington, DC-based nonprofit energy and environmental research group Tuesday. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu called shale gas a “big deal” because “gas will be [the] transition fuel as [we] go to renewables.”

In a shrinking power load market nationally under the shadow of climate change policy responses and economic recession, NRG Energy Inc. CEO David Crane urged the electricity industry and financial analysts following it not to “overreact” to the prospect of what some would characterize as draconian measures set to come out of the Obama administration’s newly activated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Some segments of the coal industry may even thrive in the future, Crane said during an earnings conference call Tuesday.

In a shrinking power load market nationally under the shadow of climate change policy responses and economic recession, NRG Energy Inc. CEO David Crane urged the electricity industry and financial analysts following it not to “overreact” to the prospect of what some would characterize as draconian measures set to come out of the Obama administration’s newly activated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Some segments of the coal industry may even thrive in the future, Crane said during an earnings conference call Tuesday.

Enduring the tough economic climate that all utilities have faced over the last year, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) was a bright spot on Thursday as the Newark, NJ-based electricity and natural gas distributor and electricity generator reported income from continuing operations for 4Q2009 of $349 million (69 cents/share), up 47% from the $237 million (46 cents/share) that the company posted in 4Q2008.