The latest Texas Public Utility Commission news from The Texas Tribune.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule on Wednesday aimed at reducing the amount of mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants. It is unlikely to improve Texas officials' low opinion of the federal agency. Full Story
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The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on managing wind energy, how electric cars could change the grid and what he's learned by monitoring his electricity consumption at home . Full Story
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The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission on how close Texas came to rolling blackouts this summer, what consumers can expect to pay as wind-power transmission expands, and how the historic drought affects the reliability of the power grid. Full Story
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Rolando Pablos, the former chairman of the Texas Racing Commission, will fill the empty slot at the Texas Public Utility Commission. Separately, the state's electric grid operator announced that its board chairwoman, Laura Doll, is stepping down. Full Story
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The Environmental Protection Agency said Texas "has an ample range" of ways to comply with an impending pollution rule, after the state grid operator reported this morning that the rule would badly strain the electric system. Full Story
The cost of building several thousand miles of transmission lines to carry wind power across Texas is now estimated at $6.79 billion, a 38 percent increase from the initial projection three years ago. Full Story
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The Legislature passed a handful of energy-saving measures this session, ranging from allowing churches access to an energy-efficiency loan program to recalibrating a statewide efficiency program. Full Story
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On Friday morning, a small group of Texans, including the chairman of the Public Utility Commission, will brief White House representatives on the smart-meter rollout and related issues in the state. Full Story
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A new report released by the Public Utility Commission has found no evidence of market manipulation during the Texas blackouts in February, though it does suggest some improvements for electric-grid operations. Full Story
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State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, is concerned about budget cuts to a program that discounts utility bills for the elderly and those with low incomes. Full Story
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The power failures earlier this month have called into question one of Texas' most basic tenets: that we do everything, including deregulation, better than anyone else. Full Story
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At a state Senate hearing this morning on Texas's rolling blackouts earlier this month, ERCOT released the first list — albeit a very partial one — of power plants that failed during the Feb. 2 crisis. Full Story
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When Texans turn on lights or plug in iPads, they are getting an increasing amount of power from the wind — and from coal plants. Last year, nearly 8 percent of the power on the state's electric grid was generated by wind, far above the national average. And coal plants produced more power than any other electricity source. The big loser was natural gas. Full Story
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During a meeting today of the Public Utility Commission, chairman Barry Smitherman said that the Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to "disarm the U.S. economy," with a raft of rules covering everything from fly-ash waste from coal plants to new rules on greenhouse gases. Full Story
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The Public Utility Commission will cancel plans to build one controversial wind-power transmission line, as well as a segment of a second — to Hill Country landowners' undoubted relief. Full Story
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The impoverished border town of Presidio is home to the largest battery system in the country: a $25 million contraption that's the size of a big house. That's not as weird as it seems. Partly because of an affinity for wind energy, the state has a number of experiments going in "energy storage" — often referred to as the "holy grail" of energy technology, because it can modernize the grid by more efficiently matching people's demand for power with the generation of electricity. Full Story
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Operators of the state’s electric grid are about to flip the switch on what could be the most significant change to the Texas energy market in a decade. The change to what’s called a “nodal” grid system happens on Dec. 1, but as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, it’s not clear what happens after that. Full Story
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Galbraith's three-parter on the battle over wind power transmission lines, Grissom on a convicted killer who got probation, Aguilar on how the U.S. census counts inmates in the Texas prison system, Stiles launches a new interactive tool tracking the candidates for governor, Hamilton on the Texas A&M University System's latest accountability measure for faculty, Hu's interview with Democratic megadonor Steve "Back to Basics" Mostyn, Philpott on how the Texas economy compares to that of other states and Ramsey on the start of the 2010 election sprint: The best of our best from Sept. 6 to 10, 2010. Full Story
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Texas already harvests more wind power than any state in the nation, bringing the promise of clean energy to millions of homes and businesses. Trouble is, getting that power from remote, windy West Texas to the big cities requires a massive, $5 billion network of transmission lines — which property owners in the Hill County and elsewhere don't want in their back yards. As construction gets under way on the new lines, an army of lawyers and angry landowners is working to stymie the state's renewable energy plans. Part one of a three-part series. Full Story
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The Public Utility Commission is poised to pass new rules that could prohibit some Texans from switching from one electric company to another. But as Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, advocates for the elderly and infirm are concerned about the impact of the proposal on some of the state's most vulnerable ratepayers. Full Story
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