Energy Technology

Federal Appeals Court Ruling on Lawsuit Against EPA is a Partial Loss For Dallas-based Luminant and Enviros

The ongoing legal war of many fronts among Dallas-based Luminant, the state of Texas, the EPA and environmentalists is mostly a war of incremental victories.This week, EPA arose victorious. Next month or year? Anybody's guess. Just know that this time, nobody (except the EPA) is totally happy with t ... More >>

Take a Video Fracking Tour with Dallas Environmentalists. And the Beatles

At the end of January, city staff arranged to have the entire City Plan Commission bused to three city-owned sites where Trinity East Energy hopes to drill for natural gas on parkland. This was so commissioners could see for themselves just how drab, un-park-like and eminently frackable they all are ... More >>

Morning News Praises Angela Hunt on Drilling! While God's Passing Out Miracles, Maybe We Can Get a Strong Mayor.

In the very wee hours as my eye first opened to the light of this day, I thought I heard a rushing of wings aloft. I caught my breath. Was this ...? And then distinctly as if from the next room, I heard the oinking of pigs. Only later with coffee in hand and the daily newspaper on my knees did I co ... More >>

Rawlings and Suhm's Attempt to Spin Secret Gas Deal into Something Innocent Is Hot Air

Some stuff won't spin. Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm is trying desperately to spin the story of her side-deal with Trinity East Energy. But that story is stuck in the ground like a tree. The Observer reported yesterday that Suhm signed an agreement five years ago with a gas drilling company to help ... More >>

Mary Suhm Signed a Secret Side Deal to Push for Drilling on Parkland as She Told Council It Would Be Banned

Documents released yesterday evening by the city reveal that Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm signed a side deal with a gas-drilling company five years ago to help the company win drilling rights on city parkland, even though she had assured the City Council and park board that drilling on parkland wou ... More >>

Native Americans Gathered Downtown Last Night to Protest Broken Treaties and a Tar Sands Pipeline

If you happened to be passing the corner of Akard and San Jacinto Monday night, the huge, blue LED lights spelling out "IDLE NO MORE" might have left you nonplussed. It was no coincidence that the demonstration, known as a light brigade, took place within a stone's throw of the Canadian consulate g ... More >>

Before They Vote on Fracking, Dallas' Plan Commissioners Will Get a Gas-Drilling Primer

The city's Gas Drilling Task Force never came to a consensus on the potential impact of allowing fracking within city limits, ultimately splintering into two opposing camps. But they did spend the better part of a year researching and debating the issue's many facets. It was curious, then, when the ... More >>

U.S. Electricity Grid Watchdog to ERCOT: You Aren't Doing Enough to Keep Lights on in Texas

Gerry Cauley, the chief executive of the North American Electric Reliability Council, the national, industry-funded grid-integrity watchdog, is pretty worried about Texas. Power-reserve margins here have slipped below the levels recommended to meet peak demand, and future projections show it will on ... More >>

Review: UT Study Declaring Fracking Groundwater-Safe Failed To Disclose Conflict of Interest, Should Be Withdrawn

An independent review of the University of Texas study that famously declared fracking could not be tied to groundwater contamination has recommended that the school retract it. The well-publicized report released earlier this year by the Energy Institute, "Fact-based Regulation for Environmental P ... More >>

Someone Really Should Explain to Mitt Romney How Markets Affect Coal

If your debate-watching drinking game included a shot for each use of the word "coal," you either peed on your roommate's couch or had your stomach pumped. Or both. The primitive fuel was invoked some 22 times, apparently, mostly by Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor ... More >>

There's a War on Coal Raging in Rep. Ralph Hall's Head

We haven't checked in on our favorite congressman, Representative Ralph Hall (R-Antediluvian Era) lately. Not since he dove from a functioning aircraft dressed in nothing but a form-fitting American flag. Turns out, he's been rummaging through a dusty, cobwebbed steamer trunk stuffed with contracept ... More >>

EPA Accuses Dallas-based Luminant's North Texas Power Plants of Clean Air Act Violations

Dallas-based Luminant, the electricity generation arm of Energy Future Holdings, got hit with a violation notice from the EPA Friday, accusing it of completing major modifications to its northeast Texas coal-fired plants, Big Brown and Martin Lake, without installing modern pollution control devices ... More >>

On Fracking and Building Roads Along the River, Who Are the Real Conservatives?

So today I put aside my morning paper after the customary two-minute encyclopedic read, and I think, "OK Lawners, you tell me." You work it out. I can't. I'm tired. So you give me the answer. Who is the "conservative" here? On the one hand I have former City Council member Lois Finkelman in report ... More >>

Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher: Energy Independence, As You Understand It, Is A Myth

Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher and a gaggle of other titans, from former U.S. Spec Ops commanders to Sam Gilliland, chief executive officer of Dallas-based Sabre Holdings, reject outright the idea that we can drill our way to energy independence. In an Energy Security Leadership Council ... More >>

UT Poll: Most Folks Want To Keep the EPA, And What is This 'Fracking' You Speak Of?

Shale gas extracted by fracking deep formations in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere is supposed to be the bridge fuel to the sustainable age, capable of powering power plants and, hell, even our cars. It's become the centerpiece of President Obama's "all of the above" energy plan. In Tex ... More >>

The Anti-Drilling Set And City Councilman Scott Griggs Will Discuss The Future of Drilling

The city of Dallas has a bit of an issue with gas, one that anti-drilling activists call potentially silent but deadly and hydraulic fracturing proponents call a huge economic relief for the city -- one that would provide an whopping amount of energy. The issue seemed to briefly and temporarily subs ... More >>

The Big Electricity Question: How Much Are Dry Nuts Worth?

As Brantley pointed out yesterday, the Texas Public Utility Commission got down to hard numbers last week as it inched further toward what appears to be inevitable -- a huge increase in the current $3,000 per megawatt-hour cap on the price of wholesale electricity during times when demand is high. T ... More >>

To Keep the Lights On, Texas Utility Regulators May Triple the Electricity Price Cap

The Texas Public Utility Commission is finally spitballing dollar figures for just how high they're willing to let wholesale electricity prices spiral when weather extremes send us to our thermostats. For the moment, we're sitting at $3,000 per megawatt-hour. To keep the lights from going out (ERCO ... More >>

Clean Electricity Bill Could Be A Bonanza For Shale Barons

A senator from New Mexico has proposed a bill that could change the face of Texas electric generation. And it has another interesting side-effect: It could reinvigorate a shale gas play depressed by tanking prices. U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committ ... More >>

Amidst Activist Outbursts, Task Force Finalizes Its Suggestions for Gas Drilling in City Limits

A few major issues, including set-back distances from drill sites and whether to protect parks from fracking, have plagued the Dallas gas drilling task force for months ... and months. (Keep in mind: Yesterday's final meeting was more than three months past the scheduled end date.) At meeting after ... More >>

Dallas-Based Energy Future Holdings, Texas's Biggest Power Generator, Had a Rough Year

Energy Future Holdings' end-o'-year popped up on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's website late Tuesday, and, boy, is it ugly. Now, why should you care? Because Energy Future is the parent company of Luminant, Texas's biggest generator of electricity. And TXU Energy, a huge retail suppli ... More >>

Drilling Task Force Nails Down Set-Backs, Narrowly Votes Against Injection Wells

David Biegler​At yesterday's meeting, the council-appointed drilling task force grappled with some of the more divisive issues in front of them -- and actually nailed down what they'll recommend the council do about set-back distances and allowing disposal wells for produced frack water. As th ... More >>

Assistant City Manager Answers Scott Griggs's Questions About Saving, Selling City's Water

​A couple of weeks back, during those water conservation and watering restriction briefings, council member Scott Griggs had a few questions for Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett that she wasn't prepared to answer, among them: Is the city presently selling water to gas drillers, and, be ... More >>

Drink In the City Council's Discussion on Conserving (And Selling) Dallas's Water Supply

I was in the middle of watching the city council briefings on water conservation and the Stage 1 watering restrictions yesterday when I got pulled away -- and just when it was getting interesting too. So this morning I started going back to review the tape, beginning just as Sandy Greys ... More >>

As Dallas Rewrites Its Gas Drilling Ordinance, Fort Worth Begins Questioning Its Regs

Photo by Leslie MinoraTask force chair, Lois Finkelman, and member, David Sterling, look fresh-faced at the first meeting, when they listened to a presentation about driling in Fort Worth.​A little more than a month ago, the Dallas gas drilling task force embarked on its mission to tackle the ... More >>

As Council Was to Take Up L.B. Houston Gas Drilling, It Retreated Behind Closed Doors

From today's council agenda​Council just wrapped discussing that police helicopter sale; Sandy Greyson, concerned about terrorist what-ifs, wanted it pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion, but the sale sailed through. This item's about something a little further down the agenda. As ... More >>

At Arlington City Hall, Locals Hammer TCEQ Panel for Stricter Gas Drilling Regulations

Photos by Leslie MinoraA panel of TCEQ reps maintained their poker faces for about two hours as citizens took the mic, almost all demanding tighter fracking regulations.​Shortly after the release of that Fort Worth air study, three reps from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took a ... More >>

The Day Before Council's Gas Drilling Task Force Begins Meeting, Watch Mayor's Promise

​While Mike Rawlings is off in France, Rudy has a pay-walled piece in the morning's paper recapping the to-do list offered when he was a candidate and the we'll-see-about-that realities facing him as mayor: "Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings must find a way to deliver on promises." Speaking of: As Leslie ... More >>

Activists Ask West to Kill Bill That Would Gut Cities' Ability to Regulate Gas Drilling

Photo by Patrick MichelsRaymond Crawford and his 21-foot-long scroll of signatures unfurled at Dallas City Hall on April 20​Dallas anti-gas drilling activist Raymond Crawford just copied us on a letter he's sending to state Sen. Royce West today, asking him to "personally get involved [and] do wha ... More >>

Environmentalists, NAACP Unite To Ask Council For Strong Gas Drilling Task Force

Photos by Patrick MichelsRaymond Crawford unfurls a 21-foot scroll of signatures from folks concerned with gas drilling in Dallas during this morning's press conference..​It's The Big Day today for gas drilling activists here at City Hall, and as Robert mentioned yesterday, the environmentalist se ... More >>

Former NY State Comptroller Makes Case For Retiring Three of Luminant's Coal-Fired Plants

Big Brown​Former New York State First Deputy Comptroller-turned-investment banker Tom Sanzillo released a report this morning, via the Sierra Club, demanding that Dallas-based Energy Future Holding (and its Luminant subsidiary) shutter three of its coal-fired power plants: Big Brown (in Fairfield) ... More >>

Council Member Angela Hunt Spells Out Demands for City's Gas Drilling Task Force

​Patrick Michels, our gas-drillin' expert, is presently at the Hunt Oil Building for that Woodall Rodgers Deck Park press conference -- which, turns out, is worth $9 million (no wonder Mayor Tom's Mayor Tom till tomorrow). So, then, I'll share with you a memo council member Angela Hunt sent to her ... More >>

At City Plan Commission: Food Trucks Drive to Council, But Gas Drilling Stays Parked For Now

Robert WilonskyThe Hot Box parked on Flora Street back on October 31​I'd been all ready to settle in for a lengthy City Plan Commission meeting this afternoon, conditioned by months of long waits before commissioners got to talking about the things I'd come for -- old favorites like gas drilling o ... More >>

From a Boiler Room to a Federal Prison, Dallas Man Gets Max Sentence for Swindlin' $13 Mil

​Back in December we introduced you to Tommy Eugene Barber, a 32-year-old Dallas man who pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of securities fraud. Long story short: Barber ran something called T-Bar Resources, LLC, which he used to sell interests in oil and gas drilling projects. Two of t ... More >>

Mayor Tom Leppert Welcomes Windpower Expo to Dallas, A "Quiet" Green Energy Leader

Photos by Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert welcomed wind power players to this week's convention, telling them Dallas has quietly become one of the country's leading green cities. Texas is already king of the hill when it comes to turning wind into electricity, and for folks who work in the industry ... More >>

Dallas Oil and Gas Man Discovers That Coffee and Federal Prison Are For Closers

​Speaking of missives sent from the U.S. Attorney's Office ...A press release just landed in the in-box concerning the tale of one Tommy Eugene Barber, a 32-year-old Dallas man who today pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to two counts of securities fraud. And what did Barber ... More >>

Is the City of Dallas Really Going Green, Or Just Talking Till It's Blue in the Face?

The city of Dallas has made much of its efforts to "build a greener city" ... which means what, exactly? That, more or less, was the question posed earlier this week during a confab at the downtown Dallas library during a program billed as a dialogue on the "green economy," a catchphrase that's beco ... More >>

Weatherstripping West Dallas

Mayor Tom Leppert's made it quite clear in recent months: West Dallas sits high atop his to-do list. To the checklist, add this item: weather-stripping, caulking and insulating some 400 homes that aren't terribly energy efficient. The city council's Housing Committee will get the full details today ... More >>

The T. Boone Pickens Alternative Energy Show Rolls Across America

Easier Being Green

Despite tough times, energy conservation bills gain traction in Legislature

Clearing the Air

Former County Judge Margaret Keliher keeps trying to blow away the smoke over pollution plans

T. Boone Now Owns Your Trash's Gas

So He's Not Saint Boone Then?

Say, That Hits the Green Spot

Wormhole

Canary in a Coal Mine

Corndoggle

Dallas Is Banking On Ethanol, But Is It The Fuel Of The Future Or A Barrel Of Pork?

Of Nelsons Willie and Don

Getting dumped

Despite shoddy science, bad economics, and catastrophic health risks, a West Texas border community may become the nation's nuclear dumping ground