From The New York Times | Halliburton and BP knew weeks before the blast on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the well was unstable, a commission found.
Filed under: Energy
Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
First Wind IPO could face turbulent debut
Wind farm owner and operator First Wind Holdings Inc., which is planning a $300 million IPO for next week, may be a risky bet in the current energy climate.
The Boston-based company, mostly owned by private equity firm Madison Dearborn and hedge fund operator D.E. Shaw foresees rapid growth. By 2014, First Wind plans to have 1900 megawatts in operation or under construction. One megawatt produces enough power to meet the electricity needs of 800 typical American homes. Get the full story »
ComEd petitions court to rehear case
Commonwealth Edison is asking the Second Appellate Court to rehear its case following a decision earlier this month that removed the funding mechanism ComEd was using to pay for a smart grid pilot program in the Chicago area.
The decision also overturned a precedent the Illinois Commerce Commission has used for years to determine how much consumers pay on utility bills, a change that would mean an annual revenue loss of tens of millions of dollars for ComEd’s parent, Exelon Corp. and possible rebates for consumers.
The court has not decided if or when it will rehear the case. Get the full story »
Hot summer boosts Exelon’s 3Q profit
Exelon says its third-quarter net income rose 12 percent as stifling summer heat led more people to crank up their air conditioners. The company is also raising its forecast for the year. The Chicago utility company said Friday it earned $845 million, or $1.27 per share, compared with $757 million, or $1.14 per share a year earlier. Get the full story »
ComEd petitions ICC to keep smart grid pilot alive
In light of a court ruling this month that placed funding for Commonwealth Edison’s smart grid pilot project in jeopardy, the utility is petitioning the Illinois Commerce Commission to wrap an additional $11 million into its $396 million rate-increase case.
The utility asked the commission to decide by the end of the month whether it will hear that request as part of a proposed 7 percent rate hike — a sign of good faith that would allow the utility to finish the project with the expectation that there would be some way for them to recoup the costs at a later day.
Get the full story »
GE revenue sinks 18%, profit misses
General Electric Co. reported a sharper-than-expected drop in revenue on slack demand for heavy equipment, casting doubts about the pace of the U.S. recovery from the worst economy since the Great Depression.
The largest U.S. conglomerate’s 5.1 percent decline in sales overshadowed better-than-expected profit and sent GE shares down 3 percent in premarket trading on Friday as some investors took it as another sign that the economic recovery is faltering. Get the full story »
Google to fund undersea cables for huge wind farm
The Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, the world's largest, located off the Kent coast in southern England. Google plans to invest in a wind farm off the coast of the U.S. (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)
Google is investing in a new wind farm power grid to be located off the East Coast of the United States.
“We just signed an agreement to invest in the development of a backbone transmission project off the Mid-Atlantic coast, that offers a solid financial return while helping to accelerate offshore wind development — so it’s both good business and good for the environment,” announced the search engine company in a blog on Monday night.
Google said the Atlantic Wind Connection will be located at least 10 miles offshore and will stretch 350 miles from New Jersey to Virginia. The wind farm will be capable of producing 6,000 megawatts, enough to power nearly 2 million homes. The wind-generated power will be delivered to the land-based transmission system via subsea cables, the company said.
Get the full story »
Shell CEO criticizes Gulf spill
The head of Royal Dutch Shell says that his company would never have made the mistakes that led to BP’s devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Get the full story »
Oil prices fall as dollar strengthens
Oil prices slipped Monday as the dollar strengthened and traders hunkered down ahead of some important economic news later this week. Get the full story »
Madigan sues Enbridge over Romeoville oil spill
The Illinois attorney general sued Enbridge Inc.’s U.S. affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners Thursday, as the state seeks to have the company pay the costs to clean up an oil pipeline spill last month.
Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and James Glasgow, the state’s attorney for Will County, filed an eight-count complaint against the company. Get the full story »
Oil prices drop as demand concerns resurface
Oil prices retreated on Thursday after rising past $84 a barrel earlier in the session. Benchmark oil for November delivery lost 35 cents at $82.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Get the full story »
FutureGen releases specs for CO2 storage site
Central Illinois cities that want to be part of a massive clean-coal project are getting a look at what they need to host a carbon dioxide storage facility. The FutureGen Alliance released specifications for the facility Wednesday.
General Electric to acquire Dresser for $3 billion
General Electric Co. on Wednesday signed a deal to buy Dresser Inc. for about $3 billion, its latest deal to expand its product offerings in gas and other energy markets.
Quantitative easing could boost oil price
Further quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve could push oil prices to an average of $83 next year even if demand remains weak, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. Get the full story »
ICC to utilities: Are you ready for plug-in vehicles?
The Illinois Commerce Commission has asked the state’s three major electric utilities to assess the impact that plug-in vehicles could have on ratepayers.
With the first major plug-in vehicle rollouts scheduled for next month, it is still unclear how much ratepayers in Illinois will pay to charge those vehicles or what upgrades will be needed to the state’s electrical infrastructure. The ICC said Wednesday that utilities have been asked to report back by December about the vehicles’ potential impact in a white paper that will guide a new statewide committee established to prepare for the vehicles. Get the full story »
