The California Public Utilities Commission has paid bonuses to what it calls “California suppliers” totaling $52 million. Of that sum, nearly $39 million has gone to one company, Bloom Energy Corp., based in Sunnyvale.
The state Senate on Wednesday failed to muster the votes needed to set a moratorium on the oil drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, until a study determines that it does not pose a health risk for the public.
The Ohio bill freezes mandates that require utilities to gradually phase in the purchase of 25 percent of their power from alternative sources, including wind, solar and emerging technologies like clean coal production, by 2025. While the freeze is in effect for two years, a commission would study the issue.
In all, some 66 industrial projects—worth some $90 billion—will be breaking ground over the next five years in Louisiana, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance. Tens of billions of other new investments could be coming, says Louisiana’s economic development secretary, Stephen Moret. How many projects will actually get built remains to be seen.
Lawmakers in the state Senate will decide this week on a law that would halt fracking in California until state government officials deem it safe – a move that could prevent the creation of some 195,000 jobs, according to figures provided by the oil industry.
It has become increasingly clear that economically, California is becoming increasingly divided between its prosperous coastal counties and its struggling inland counties. That split has made it important for the state’s leaders to recognize that policies that appear to make sense to those representing the state’s successful areas may be generating unintended negative consequences to the parts of the state outside of their frame of reference.
Electricity bills are rising for small businesses as well as commercial and industrial utility customers, as San Diego Gas & Electric shifts the way it pays for low-income subsidies. Residential customers, meanwhile, will save.
One recent study predicts the cost of electricity in California alone could jump 47% over the next 16 years, in part because of the state’s shift toward more expensive renewable energy.
The oil and gas industry makes a significant contribution to the Californian economy. Extraction, production, refining and petroleum products manufacturing result in highly tradable products both consumed domestically and exported, producing high revenues, high wage jobs and significant fiscal revenues for all levels of government. In this report, the Economic and Policy Analysis Group of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) conducts an industry contribution analysis of the oil and gas industry in California in 2012.
Problems at some of the state’s fuel refineries have sent gasoline prices soaring in California just in time for the kickoff of the busy driving season.
California, a world leader in wind energy development in the 1980s and 1990s, now ranks behind Texas in wind power capacity and industry jobs, according to the Washington, D.C.-based American Wind Energy Association.
The reform will slow the growth of green energy, which accounts for 25 percent of Germany’s electricity, and force new investors in green power to take some risk.
The race began after the federal Energy Information Administration estimated in 2011 that more than 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil is trapped in what’s known as the Monterey Shale formation, which covers 1,750 square miles, roughly from Bakersfield to Fresno.
For the first time in months, most Californians are shelling out more than $4 for a gallon of regular gasoline. And with the busy summer driving season ahead, prices are likely to move even higher, fuel analysts said.
Starting next year, the law will force fuel distributors into the same cap-and-trade marketplace as utilities and major manufacturers. The oil industry says it will lead to price increases of at least 12 cents a gallon immediately, while state regulators say any price spikes could vary widely, from barely noticeable to double-digits.