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In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the mighty state of Texas was asleep. The honky-tonks in Austin were shuttered, the air-conditioned office towers of Houston were powered down, and the wind whistled through the dogwood trees and live oaks on the gracious lawns of Preston Hollow. Out in the desolate flats of West Texas, the same wind was turning hundreds of wind turbines, producing tons of electricity at a time when comparatively little supply was needed. And then a very strange thing happened: The so-called spot price of electricity in Texas fell toward zero, hit zero, and...

DALLAS -- Royal Dutch Shell and Dallas-based TXU Corporation agreed to jointly develop a wind-powered electricity generation project in the Texas High Plains on Friday. The proposed 3,000-megawatt project would be situated in Briscoe County, southeast of Amarillo. One megawatt of electricity is enough to light 1,000 homes. The deal between Shell Wind Energy and TXU subsidiary Luminant also commits both sides to work together on other renewable energy projects in Texas. Both companies said they'll also research whether compressed air can be stored and used to drive the wind-driven turbines at times of low winds or peak demand.

DALLAS -- TXU Corporation announced it will add systems designed to reduce emissions of mercury from its coal-fired power plants. The company says it's the country's largest voluntary program to reduce mercury pollution emissions. TXU is scheduled to ask state regulators on Wednesday to approve a new coal-fired plant that's opposed by many environmentalists. TXU was joined in its announcement by private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group. The two are trying to close their $32 billion purchase of TXU. Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy says TXU is making a significant commitment to cleaner air ahead of new...

Climate 411 Blogging the science and policy of global warming RSS Feed .)) Bill Chameides, our chief scientist, offers plain-English explanations of the science behind global warming, and its policy implications. TXU Buyout tied to Environmental Agreement February 27, 2007 | Posted by Jim Marston in News Guest blogger Jim Marston is an attorney, and the Director of the Energy Program in the Texas Office of Environmental Defense. Who would have thought that, almost a month to the day after the USCAP initiative was announced, coal-enamored TXU would come on board? But today's big news is victory in Texas, thanks...

AUSTIN -- TXU Energy engaged in unfair trading practices and improperly profited through its manipulation of the wholesale electricity market, Texas regulators have concluded.In a blistering report issued today by the Texas Public Utility Commission, the North Texas utility also was found to have improperly driven up wholesale electric prices by 15.5 percent during the summer of 2005 and made about $20 million more as a result.Regulators reviewed a three-month period in 2005 during which some wholesale electricity prices were found to have spiked to unusual levels. A previous consultant’s report commissioned by the PUC had found "substantial competitive concerns,”...

Playing Pasadena's No Dirty Coal Deal Out on a Grand Scale - TXU's Bre'r Rabbit Strategy Charles Warren, San Francisco The Pasadena Pundit - Feb. 28, 2007 Playing Pasadena out on a grand scale, the TXU deal was aptly dissected in this morning's Wall Street Journal. In order to get green backing for the buyout, the new owners proposed stopping work on licensing 6 new coal fired generators. But, given the market power of TXU that was rightly seen as a Bre'r Rabbit tactic. "Oh please make me stop adding to the power supply...(so that when the shortage hits, I...

In what will be the largest leveraged buyout of all time, the private equity firms of KKR and Texas Pacific Group are close to announcing a more than $40 billion purchase of TXU. The giant Texas utility that is the largest producer of power in that state, CNBC's David Faber has learned. TXU's board is expected to vote on the deal this weekend and an announcement is likely on Monday morning, people familiar with the situation told Faber.TXU, KKR and Texas Pacific officials declined comment.The exact price KKR will pay is unclear, Faber said. TXU's current market cap is $27.5...

Excerpt - In what will be the largest leveraged buyout of all time, the private equity firm of KKR is close to announcing its purchase of TXU, the giant Texas utility that is the largest producer of power in that state, CNBC's David Faber has learned. TXU's board is expected to vote on the deal this weekend and an announcement is likely on Monday morning, people familiar with the situation told Faber. TXU officials and KKR declined comment. The exact price KKR will pay is unclear, Faber said. TXU's current market cap is $27.5 billion. It also has $12.3 billion...

In what is being projected as an economic boom for the East Texas region (if it comes to fruition), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor. The announcement was made last week as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million. The corridor is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition. "If we had a major four-lane, east-west highway through Jasper it would mean to us what I-10 means to Beaumont and I-20 means to Shreveport," said Jasper...

A TV advertisement opposing TXU Corp.'s plan to build 11 new coal plants in Texas begins airing Wednesday in the Waco market, and will air next week in Dallas. The ad campaign, titled "Profits and Pollution," are being paid for by Environmental Defense, a nonprofit environmental group that is suing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the permit applications process. The ads are asking viewers to contact their state legislators and ask them to slow down TXU's fast-tracked coal plan. The fast-tracking plan could cut down the regulatory approval process for a new plant to six months. It previously...

AUSTIN — TXU Wholesale was named on Friday as the mysterious energy supplier linked to possible anti-competitive practices similar to those associated with Enron during the California power crisis.The Texas Public Utility Commission had withheld the identity of the North Texas company for months, saying that it would only release only it if the agency launched an enforcement action. But on Friday, in the face of mounting public information requests from media outlets, the agency relented and named TXU Wholesale as the operation identified only as ``Company C” in a July consultant’s report on the Texas energy market.On the last...

TXU and CURRENT Communications to Create Nation's First Multipurpose Smart Grid Texas-based utility TXU Electric Delivery, the nation’s sixth large electric transmission and distribution company and a subsidiary of TXU Corp., and CURRENT Communications Group, LLC have announced an agreement to transform TXU’s power distribution network into the nation’s first broadband-enabled ‘smart’ electric grid. Key elements of the announcement include the following: CURRENT will construct a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) network to serve more than two million TXU Electric Delivery customers in the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and in other Texas communities. Overlaid on the existing electric distribution...

Solitude is likely to persist at park Its owner, TXU, cites noise, security climate, potential hazards North Lake Park used to be a happening place, even during the holiday season. Radio-controlled jets used to streak through the skies above while motorboats and water-skiers skimmed the surface of the 850-acre lake. Families and friends would gather on weekends around the picnic tables. In 1986, about 25,000 people listened to evangelists rail against rock 'n' roll and secular education with the lake in the background. There used to be a two-mile Christmas lights display along the lakeshore each December. Today, the only...

Man stung 200 times by bees sues TXU 05/28/2003 Associated Press WACO, Texas - A man stung more than 200 times by bees is suing TXU Corp., alleging the utility company knew the swarm lived in an abandoned underground gas meter box and didn't warn the public. Kenneth Lehrmann of Mart is seeking unspecified damages, including hospital expenses and lost wages, in a lawsuit filed in Waco's 170th State District Court. The suit also claims TXU was negligent for knowingly harboring the beehive, failing to maintain the meter box and failing to remove the box after it was not being...