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Edison International, PG&E Corp. and other suppliers of electricity in California will be required by state regulators to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Power companies in the most populous state will face a cap intended to bring emissions down, possibly to 1990 levels, according to a measure approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last year that he wanted the state to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The state would be the first to regulate emissions by electricity providers. "It's a very positive first step in the right direction," said Dan Kalb, the California...

Since Hamas's landslide victory, a debate has ensued over whether Israel ought to continue to remit taxes it has been collecting on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, even though the PA will now be controlled by a terrorist organization openly committed to Israel's destruction. For just the payment scheduled for this month, some NIS 200 million has been collected, and for now the government seems to have decided not to transfer the funds to the PA. Unmentioned in our public discourse, however, are the vast funds owed by the PA to Israel. This situation antedates all recent upheavals. No sooner...

PG&E customers are about to get stung with a double whammy on energy prices. Natural gas bills, whose rates fluctuate monthly, will go up by nearly 44 percent in January. Electric rates are rising to a record high -- more than what they were during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. Both price spikes are being driven by the growing cost of natural gas, whose supply hasn't fully recovered from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The result is that customers will pay an average of $50 more this January than they did in January 2005. The price hikes have been anticipated for months....

Perry Announces Plan to Accelerate Interstate 69Ambitious Transportation Corridor Will Create Jobs, Trade Opportunities HOUSTON - Gov. Rick Perry today announced an ambitious plan to partner with the private sector to develop an interstate-quality highway corridor with additional rail freight capacity that connects the Lower Rio Grande River Valley to I-37 and continues along the south and east portions of Texas from Corpus Christi through Houston all the way to northeast Texas. The visionary transportation project, TTC-69, will connect industrial hubs in South Texas and the Midwest. “When construction is complete, Texas will benefit from unprecedented trade opportunities, a faster,...

Gov. Rick Perry's ceremonial signing of the eminent domain bill Monday in Waco didn't get a positive reaction from his rival for his 2006 reelection, Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, or from Richmond resident and private property rights activist Jack Myska. Strayhorn accused Perry of grandstanding and said the bill is filled with loopholes, and Myska concurred. "I agree with her wholeheartedly," Myska said Tuesday morning, adding he has not yet read the bill thoroughly. Perry officially signed the law into effect on Sept. 1, but the ceremonial signing was postponed due to hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He said Monday...

CINCINNATI--The idea has been around for years. In Spain and elsewhere in Europe, utility companies have long offered high-speed Internet service to consumers over their power lines. But American utilities are only now beginning to roll out broadband connections on their grid. For Jim Hofstetter, a salesman for Cadbury Schweppes, the food and beverage company, this new option was far better than the high-speed connection he used for years from his local cable provider. "I would never go back now that I have this," said Hofstetter, who often works from his home office in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati....

Get ready. TTC-35 is coming. Though Michael Behrens wouldn't use those words, not exactly, and he'd probably cringe to realize it, that's the impression he left at the end of an hour and a half of questioning Thursday. "Something is going to have to be built somewhere," the executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation said after meeting in Cameron with a group of reporters from several rural newspapers. There was touch of resignation in his voice when he said it. The Trans Texas Corridor is a proposed multi-lane transportation network designed to carry passenger, freight, rail and utilities....

AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 6, 2005) -- Thought to be one of the four rivers to flow from the Garden of Eden and known to be the heart of ancient civilizations like Sumeria and Babylonia, the Euphrates River now supplies water for coalition forces based in the Al Anbar province. Marines and Sailors from Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24 keep water flowing from the Euphrates, despite the efforts of insurgents. “They blow up the pipes, we go fix them,” said Sgt. Richard Tulley, a hygiene equipment operator and Hammond, N.Y., native. “It’s that simple....

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Utility operator Entergy Corp., which provides electricity to much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, on Friday said its New Orleans subsidiary has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Entergy New Orleans filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, saying that the storm "dealt a body blow" to the unit, destroying facilities, disrupting revenue, and impairing the ability of its customer base to pay bills. The company asked the court to approve debtor-in-possession financing that includes $200 million in loans to...

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s (NAVFAC) Mobile Utilities Support Equipment (MUSE) technicians deployed Aug. 31 to Gulfport, Miss., where they will assess damage and urgent utility needs for Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport. “We are proud to be able to do what we can to help,” said Chief Construction Electrician John “Matt” Smith, leader of the four-member team. NAVFAC MUSE division is tasked to provide emergency utility support to the base in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Two 800-kilowatt (kW) generators and one 2500-kilovolt-amp (kVA) substation are on their way to Gulfport...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Calpine Corp. said Wednesday it would sell all its remaining oil and gas properties to an indirect subsidiary for about $1.05 billion. Under the terms of the deal Rosetta Resources Inc., wholly owned by Calpine, will issue 45.3 million shares worth $725 million in a private placement. The proceeds, together with a $325 million in a new credit facility, will be used to buys all of Calpine's domestic oil and gas exploration and production assets. Shares of San Jose, Calif.-based Calpine (CPN: news, chart, profile) rose 5.83% in pre-opening trade Wednesday to $3.81. Calpine said the...

ATLANTA, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Mirant Corp. (MIRKQ) and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Mirant Corp. (the "Mirant Corp. Committee") in its bankruptcy proceeding announced that they have filed a lawsuit against Mirant's former parent company, Southern Company (NYSE: SO - News), seeking recovery of at least $2 billion in connection with transfers made to Southern prior to Southern's spin-off of Mirant in April 2001. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Ft. Worth, where Mirant's Chapter 11 reorganization case is being heard by the Honorable Judge D. Michael...

WASHINGTON - For two months, Ray Ganthner took to the road, visiting a dozen power companies to find out if his bosses should take a $100 million gamble. Asking executives "eyeball-to-eyeball" about their future generating capacity needs, he wanted to know just how serious utilities were about building a new nuclear power plant in the United States for the first time in three decades. "I was surprised at the consistency of the answers," Ganthner, a Lynchburg, Va.-based senior executive for the French reactor manufacturer, Framatome, said in an interview. Based on what he found, AREVA, Framatome's parent company, is now...

LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S.-based power producer Calpine Corp. (CPN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has sold a British power station to the UK's International Power Plc (IPR.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd (8031.T: Quote, Profile, Research) for 500 million pounds ($912 million), the Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday.International Power will take 70 percent of the Saltend unit under a partnership which will hand the other 30 percent to the Japanese trading house, the FT's Web site (http://www.ft.com) reported without citing sources. No one from International Power could be reached for comment. A Mitsui spokesman said...

Texas transportation officials are expected to negotiate a plan this month that would launch the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's grandiose vision of future transportation. The first planned route would run through Central Texas from Oklahoma to Mexico, and its first segment would be a four-lane toll road from Dallas to San Antonio. But officials in Houston and along the Gulf Coast are paying close attention. They're not alone. "The whole nation is watching Texas to see if we can pull it off," said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson, Perry's appointee and go-to man for getting the corridor built....

The Texas Department of Transportation is continuing its work on the Trans-Texas Corridor which may have a major impact on Milam County. Although it started out as Rick Perry's dream in 2002, it is quickly becoming reality. The 'Corridor' that may have a direct effect on Milam County has been named TTC-35 because it extends from Oklahoma to Mexico and parallels I-35. TTC-35 would be up to 1,200-feet wide and have six lanes for passenger vehicles and four lanes for trucks. Also, it would include six rail lines and a 200-foot utility zone. TTC-35 would be 800 miles long. In...

McLennan County Commissioners and the Waco Chamber of Commerce have voiced their concern about the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor and Thursday, county residents got a chance to voice their opinions on the proposed superhighway. The superhighway and train corridor is expected to cost $184 million. A hearing was held in Bellmead where the big argument surrounding the proposed Corridor doesn't seemed to be if it's needed, but where to put it. The proposed superhighway would have six passenger lanes, four commercial lanes and high speed passenger rail lines. It's goal is to alleviate traffic on Interstate 35. But many in McLennan...

Activists taking shots at the planned Trans Texas Corridor have found some legislators willing to take a stab at trimming the colossal super-highway and ensuring that state authorities control the toll rates. Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who sits on the appropriations committee and is vice chairman of the House Rural Caucus, said she filed House Bill 1273 in an attempt to balance the huge scope of the corridor with grass-root concerns. "My goal is to better the concept," she said. "I will be very saddened for Texas if we don't have some assurances in place." Kolkhorst was joined by co-authors...

Start all over with the Trans Texas Corridor. And let the legislature oversee future highway planning. That was the gist of the testimony delivered by TFB State Director Albert Thompson on behalf of the Texas Farm Bureau during a recent Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security hearing on the massive transportation project. "...it appears to us that the legislature has given the Texas Department of Transportation what amounts to a blank check worth approximately $180 billion," Thompson said on Feb. 9. "We would feel more comfortable if citizens had the opportunity to voice opinions with elected officials who should...

Making tacks By Kathy Williams Herald Democrat Editor's note: This is the first in an occasional series on the Trans-Texas Corridor and how it will affect Texoma drivers. State officials held public hearings in Sherman and Gainesville this week on proposed paths of the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Corridor is a futuristic infrastructure promoters of the concept say will move people, freight and utilities as efficiently, safely and quickly as possible. Texas Gov. Rick Perry introduced the concept in January 2002, estimating its total cost at $145.2 billion to $183.5 billion. The Texas Department of Transportation took the concept and developed...