People
Florida Water recently named four new senior executive vice presidents, plus news from the Independent Power Producers of New York, The Northwest Power Pool, and others.
Law & Lawyers
Coal: No Longer a Dirty Word?
Benchmarks
It appears that coal will continue to play a role in meeting the need for new generating capacity in the U.S. Used in the proper context, perhaps coal does not have to be a "four-letter" word.
Spread the Job of Cleaning the Air
The California Crisis: Another Take
We’ve been dumping the cost on utilities, but ground is shifting.
Bush Energy Plan Takes the High Road
News Analysis
President Bush's national energy policy offers no relief for summer, giving Democrats a bone to pick.
Forget Black Gold or Texas Tea …
From Malibu to Beverly Hills, they all want a personal generator.
While it may not be the end-all, fix-all solution for the California energy crunch, many individuals have found that the use of personal generators is definitely worthwhile, particularly when it comes to keeping cool.
How Soon They Forget
The case against re-regulating the electric industry.
Restructuring has already created a badly needed new atmosphere for the industry. There is an infusion of new thinking and vigor that portends bringing the industry's performance up to the standards of the rest of the economy. We have no reason to believe that regulation would fare better in the future than in the past. Let's go forward with electric restructuring. Unfortunately, however, it's turning out to be more difficult than we expected.
The Song of Competition: Still as Sweet Without Cheap Gas?
More ruminations on the "stranded ratepayer."
Two readers — President and CEO of El Paso Electric James Haines and Richard D. Cudahy, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago — respond to a letter written about Cudahy's article “The Stranded Ratepayer” (March 15, 2001, p. 26).
L.A. Loves a Loophole
There's no getting around it—price caps aren't for everyone.
A letter to Michael J. Manning at Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P. from FERC General Counsel Kevin P. Madden.
What Price an Easement? Setting Market Value in Fiber Optic Corridors
How a landmark case on landowner compensation could make or break the industry.
The world of fiber optic easements is a world in which probably only a small percentage of real property transactions conform to the purist legal definition of fair market value established by our courts. In such a world, we should view the ATB or going prices paid by fiber optic conduit wholesalers or retailers as reflective of “fair market value,” no matter how one-sided they may appear to be. Across-The-Board easement prices come closest to reflecting the minimum conditions necessary to replicate true competitive market for partial property rights in limited-market corridor properties.
The Bush Plan and Beyond: Toward a More Rational U.S. Energy Policy
Any plan to reduce energy consumption should rest on economics — not ideology.
In addition to increasing total U.S. gas consumption to 34.7 Tcf in 2020, it would take another 11.3 Tcf/year to convert existing coal-fired U.S. steam-electric capacity to gas-fired combined-cycle units operating at the same load factor. Clearly, that is a tall order. Nevertheless, we must face the fact that there are few alternatives other than backing out coal-fired generation that would reduce global carbon emissions to a total of less than 870-990 million metric tons between 1991 and 2100. The logical endpoint will be electrification of most stationary energy uses with high-tech renewable or essentially inexhaustible energy sources, and the use of hydrogen from non-fossil-fuel sources as the dominant transportation fuel.