Lone

Everyone knows “Texas tea” means oil, but in the Lone Star state, ethylene produced from booming supplies of natural gas liquids (NGL) might come to be known as “Texas sweetened tea” for the profitability it’s bringing to the Gulf Coast petrochemical industry.

The energy industry is at the “dawning of the natural gas era,” but “federal regulatory overreach” threatens to crimp development of the Lone Star State’s gas and oil reserves, attendees at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute’s (TCCRI) Houston Energy Summit were told Thursday.

The energy industry is at the “dawning of the natural gas era,” but “federal regulatory overreach” threatens to crimp development of the Lone Star State’s gas and oil reserves, attendees at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute’s (TCCRI) Houston Energy Summit were told Thursday.

Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) gained state regulatory approval Thursday to sell its lone remaining interest in out-of-state coal-fired generation. This is consistent with the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) mandate that it do so by 2016.

Blazing heat and a comparatively robust economy have driven up power demand in the Lone Star State enough to move the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to contract for power from four mothballed gas-fired generating units.

Shell Canada Ltd. is looking for a partner to help develop its gassy Chinook leasehold, 102,000 acres in the Nikanassin Formation, a shale play in the Deep Basin of Western Canada.

Texas is on its way to leading the nation in the public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals. Gov. Rick Perry Friday signed into law HB 3328, making the Lone Star State a leader on an issue with which other states producing natural gas from shale plays have struggled.

More natural gas use for power generation and transportation in the Lone Star State is a plank in the platform of the newly formed Texas Clean Energy Coalition (TCEC), which is being led by former state Sen. Kip Averitt, TCEC chairman, with funding from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.

Retail natural gas consumers in the Lone Star State have paid “tens of millions of dollars more” for the commodity than they should have due to “one-sided” decisions by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), a coalition of Texas cities’ analysis charges.