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WEI Member News 2010 Winter Games Venues to Track Energy Consumption in Real Time BC Hydro and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) have announced the launch of an online energy tracker that will publicly monitor real-time energy consumption of 2010 Winter Games sites within the cities of Vancouver and Richmond, the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb. More Alcoa to Invest $20 Million in Chelan PUD Power Delivery Chelan County PUD commissioners gave their nod last month to Alcoa’s plan to invest an estimated $20 million in power system upgrades that will make it possible to operate a third pot line reliably at Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works in coming years. More Avista Files Request to Eliminate Energy Cost Surcharge Electricity prices for Avista's 232,000 Washington customers will decrease by an overall 7 percent beginning Feb. 12, 2010, if the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) approves Avista's request to eliminate an existing energy cost surcharge. More El Paso Corporation Reports $1.57 per Mcfe Domestic Reserve Replacement Costs before Price-Related Revisions; Proved Reserves Increase to 2.75 Tcfe El Paso Corporation reported in January that its domestic reserve replacement costs, before reserve revisions due to price, improved to $1.57 per Mcfe. In addition, its proved natural gas and oil reserves at December 31, 2009 totaled 2.75 Tcfe, including 201 Bcfe related to its 48.8 percent interest in Four Star. More Idaho Power Recognized for Climate Innovation Idaho Power is one of the top 100 companies best equipped to handle environmental policy changes and produce climate-related innovation, according to the Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index (CII). Kla-how-ya: Welcome Aboriginal Tourism to the Pan Pacific Vancouver From February 12-28, the lobby of the Pan Pacific Hotel will be transformed into an Aboriginal village called “Kla-how-ya,” a word recognized by Aboriginal Nations meaning “welcome.” A partnership between the Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC (AtBC), the Pan Pacific Hotel and Terasen Gas, the stunning 16-day showcase of Aboriginal art, performances, and culture is free to residents and visitors during the upcoming 2010 Games. More Labor Contract Approved by Clark Public Utilities and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 125 PGE Foundation Makes $10K Emergency Grant to Mercy Corps’ Haiti Relief On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the PGE Foundation--Portland General Electric’s corporate foundation--quickly approved a $10,000 emergency grant to Mercy Corps to be used for Haiti relief efforts. More PSE Helps Local Schools Maximize New State Energy Grants and Works with Local Government Agencies and Organizations to Maximize Federal Stimulus Dollars Sixteen of the Washington State schools that will receive more than $6 million of the $16.7 million in new energy grants recently announced and administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and funded by the state Legislature have also signed a Resource Conservation Management (RCM) agreement with Puget Sound Energy. The agreements support local RCM jobs and maximize schools' use of the new funding by combining it with incentives from the RCM and other PSE energy efficiency programs. Rocky Mountain Power Requests $16.3 Million Rate Decrease for Wyoming Customers Rocky Mountain Power requested a decrease in rates for its Wyoming customers of approximately $16.3 million, through the company’s annual power cost adjustment process. Rate changes must first be approved by the Wyoming Public Service Commission and will vary by customer class. If approved, price reductions are expected to take effect April 1, 2010. MoreSeattle City Light Awarded $40,000 Grant for Salmon Habitat Restoration Seattle City Light has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board to support salmon and steelhead habitat restoration along the lower Tolt River near Carnation, Washington. MoreSMUD Gets Huge Response from Feed-In Tariff Opportunity In the first week that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) standard tariff for qualifying renewable and combined heat and power generating facilities took effect, the utility received applications for its feed-in tariff (FIT) that exceed the program’s 100 megawatt capacity. All applications received offer solar photovoltaic technology. More Snohomish PUD Moves to Member Status in ColumbiaGrid ColumbiaGrid is another member strong. The transmission organization announced that Snohomish County PUD, headquartered in Everett, Washington, has completed the steps to become a member. More SolarReserve Signs Power Contract with NV Energy for Utility Scale Solar Power Project in Nevada SolarReserve, a California-based developer of utility-scale solar power projects, announced it has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with NV Energy for the sale of electricity from SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. More Southern California Edison Announces $1 Million Green Jobs Education Initiative for California Community Colleges Southern California Edison (SCE) has launched a $1 million Green Jobs Education Initiative to fund sustainable or “green” education and job training at 10 California community colleges, solidifying a commitment to its core philanthropic priorities--education and the environment. More Tessera Solar and Stirling Energy Systems Unveil World's First Commercial-Scale SunCatcher Plant, Maricopa Solar, with Partner SRP Only four months after breaking ground, Tessera Solar and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) showcased the highly anticipated Maricopa Solar power plant last month at a special event for key partners, stakeholders and media. More The Alaska Pipeline Project Files Open Season Plan with FERC The Alaska Pipeline Project announced that it filed its plan with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to obtain approval to conduct the first natural gas pipeline open season to develop Alaska’s vast natural gas resources. The project is a joint effort between TransCanada Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation to develop a natural gas pipeline under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA). More Williams, Williams Partners Announce Strategic Restructuring to Drive Growth, Value Williams and Williams Partners L.P. announced that Williams plans to contribute its gas pipeline and domestic midstream businesses plus its limited- and general-partner interests in Williams Pipeline Partners L.P. into Williams Partners. The partnership-transforming restructuring is valued at approximately $12 billion. More
Rest of the West
Xcel Energy and GridPoint Deploy Next-Generation Home Energy Management Solution Xcel Energy and GridPoint, Inc. announced that 1.4 million residential Colorado utility customers now have access to the My Account site on www.xcelenergy.com using GridPoint’s recently released home energy management solution. More On the Move
Kern River's Micheal Dunn Named as New PacifiCorp Energy President More Genevieve Shiroma Elected SMUD Board President More Sania Radcliffe Appointed PGE Director of Government Affairs More Phil West Heads Customer Service and Energy Delivery for City Light More Mark Moench, Rocky Mountain Power General Counsel, Receives Best Corporate Counsel Award More Arthur Rosenfeld, Efficiency Pioneer, Retires from California Energy Commission More
News Supreme Court Declines to Review Transmission Siting Ruling In January the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling that the FERC cannot approve transmission infrastructure sites after they have been rejected by a state. More States Say EPA Should Roll Out Emissions Rules Slowly Although generally supportive of the EPA’s move to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions, many state regulators have urged the agency to slow the rollout of its proposed rules to avoid administrative gridlock. More Survey Reveals Widespread Security Breaches of Critical Infrastructure Systems A new study reveals that over half the entities operating power plants and other “critical infrastructure” like water and sewage systems have been infiltrated by hackers. More Scientist Admits Glacier Melt Prediction Was Unfounded A scientist whose claim that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 appeared in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently said that the assertion was not based on peer-reviewed research and that it had been made to “impact policy makers and politicians.” More Tests Suggest Waters Beneath Antarctic Shelf Not Warming The sea water beneath the Fimbul Ice Shelf in the East Antarctic appears to be very close to freezing, report scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute, who recently drilled through the ice to measure water temperatures. More Asian Ozone May Be Traveling to Western U.S. While ground-level ozone in cities in the Western U.S. has dropped due to pollution-control measures, scientists recently concluded that a rise in the gas in the region’s rural areas is likely due to winds carrying ozone from sources across the Pacific. More Current Gas Glut Dampens Enthusiasm for New Gulf Find A major new gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexico could be good news for the gas development sector in that region, but current and projected market conditions are not in developers’ favor. More LNG Option for Alaska Pipeline Could be Blow to Alberta With their initial open season, TransCanada Corp. and Exxon-Mobil are offering North Slope producers an option to support either an overland pipeline route that would go through Alberta or a line that would send the gas to Valdez to be converted into LNG. More CA Emissions Credits Should be Sold, Not Given Away, Says Advisory Committee A group charged with proposing a method for California to allocate greenhouse-gas emissions allowances recently suggested that most but not all the available allowances should be sold. More Slack Power Demand Delays Major Transmission Projects The recession-driven slump in power demand is jeopardizing the timeline for three planned major transmission projects in the eastern U.S. More Proposed Rockies Gas Lines Near Approval The FERC will likely reach final approval on the proposed Bison and Ruby pipelines this spring—projects which between them would be capable of moving nearly 2 bcf/day of natural gas into populous areas of the Midwest and West. More FERC Proposes New Rules for Electricity Markets and Participants FERC in January proposed a number of new rules to adapt to changes in the economy and the growing nationwide need to integrate renewable power sources into electricity supply portfolios. More Google Seeks Status as Electricity Marketer Joining a handful of other non-energy industry players such as Alcoa, Safeway Inc. and Kohler Co., Google has applied to the FERC for approval to become an electricity marketer. More U.S. Climate Measures to Emphasize Jobs Creation Enthusiasm for a cap-and-trade program to help curb U.S. greenhouse gas emissions has been replaced by a sense of urgency regarding jobs creation in light of continued high unemployment figures. More Blue-Ribbon Commission on Nuclear Waste Disposal Yet to be Convened In February of 2009, when Obama reduced funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, he announced that a commission would be formed to explore alternate solutions for the management of nuclear waste. A year later, no commission has been convened—and people on all sides of the issue are wondering what the implications will be for further inaction. More Basalt Formations Offer Hope of Secure CO2 Sequestration Amid debates about the feasibility of CO2 capture and sequestration, one nagging concern is that the sequestered gas could escape. Basalt’s unique composition might solve that by turning the gas into rock. More
Western Natural Gas Market Review More
Western LNG Update Apache Corp. Buys 51 Percent Stake in Proposed Kitimat LNG Terminal More FERC Tells National Marine Fisheries Service to Move Forward on Project Evaluation More FERC’s Jordan Cove Approval Challenged on Several Fronts More Safety of Yemeni LNG Cargoes Questioned in Boston More Senate Bill Lays Out State Role in LNG Project Approval Process More Global LNG Supply, Benefits of Northwest Terminals Hard to Predict More Expanded Panama Canal Could See More LNG Cargoes More LNG Will Play Role in U.S. Gas Pricing More January Cold Spikes LNG Sendouts in Eastern and Gulf Coasts More |
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