Ideas

Propelled by its U.S. onshore crude oil and liquids output, EOG Resources Inc. reported better-than-expected profits for the third quarter. Investors in return sent the stock price up 4.37% on Tuesday.

Now that the shale-driven natural gas supply renaissance has spread to natural gas liquids, namely ethane, multiple companies have announced ideas for doing something with it. Royal Dutch Shell plc has set its sites on the Marcellus Shale region for the possible construction of a world-class ethane cracker.

They come from opposing sides of Arkansas’ political divide and have different ideas about where the proceeds should be spent, but Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, and Sheffield Nelson, a former Republican candidate for governor, agree that the state’s severance tax on natural gas production needs to be raised.

They come from opposing sides of Arkansas’ political divide and have different ideas about where the proceeds should be spent, but Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, and Sheffield Nelson, a former Republican candidate for governor, agree that the state’s severance tax on natural gas production needs to be raised.

Reliant Energy said that ideas that can help you manage and reduce your energy costs are now available with the launch of two new Internet-based services. The free, online energy analysis tools give consumers and owners of small to medium-sized businesses a detailed energy report of their home or business and money-saving recommendations on ways to improve their energy efficiency. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on our new Web site. Waters Davis, president of Reliant Energy Retail Services, believes these tools support Reliant Energy’s efforts to help customers reduce their energy costs. “These online products are customer-focused. They are powerful new tools that can assist our customers in managing their energy usage. These Web-based services put potential energy savings in the hands of customers,” said Davis. He said the two online services are diagnostic tools for the home or business, identifying opportunities to improve energy efficiency, then suggesting ways to help make these enhancements. The new web-based tool for residential customers is called “Reliant Energy Checkup” and can be accessed at http://www.reliant.com/energycheckup. Small to medium-sized businesses that use less than one megawatt of electricity can use the “Online Energy Advisor” at http://www.reliant.com/business/energyadvisor for a detailed energy analysis designed specifically with business customers in mind.

A government-run transmission grid is one of the ideas that willbe proposed this week by California’s statewide association of 30government-run utilities in response to the summer electricityprice and supply woes. The municipal utilities account for about25% of the state’s electricity.

Separate Congressional and regulatory hearings in San Diego lastweek turned up a wide array of potential prescriptions for curingwhat ails California’s still-convalescing wholesale power market,but it also exposed the continuing federal-state head-butting.State officials mostly want to first satisfy the consumer-relatedproblems, returning to regulated rates if necessary, while FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission members don’t want to abandon theiralmost decade-long push for market-based energy industries.