American Electric Power Co., Inc. Message Board

Cheniere: LNG facility ahead of schedule

Posted on May 6, 2013 at 6:53 am by Associated Press

Tugboats pull an LNG tanker to Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass terminal in 2008. (Nick De La Torre / Houston Chronicle)

BATON ROUGE, La. — Cheniere Energy Inc. says construction is ahead of schedule on the first two units of its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas facility, with around 26 percent of the work complete as of March 31.

The company told The Advocate the Cameron Parish facility’s first two production units are expected to begin producing LNG in late 2015.

Meanwhile, two additional units have received all of the necessary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Department of Energy approvals. The company is in the process of securing the financing to build those units.

The company borrowed $5.9 billion to build the first two units.

fuelfixDOTcom/blog/2013/05/06/cheniere-lng-facility-ahead-of-schedule/

April EV & Hybrid Sales Report

May 5, 2013 Zachary Shahan

Unfortunately, the report below doesn’t include Tesla sales, but it still rounds up April 2013 sales for the other hybrid and electric vehicles for sale in the US. Have a look and let us know your thoughts!

Compared to April 2012, not many automakers can be too happy about their hybrid and electric vehicle sales. Basically, just Nissan and Ford have something to cheer about, and they certainly do!

Click IMAGE

Ford hybrid and EV sales were up 567.8% in April 2013 compared to April 2012 — 8,628 sales compared to 1,292. The bulk of the sales were for the Ford Fusion Hybrid (3,625, or 365.94% more than April 2012′s 778) and the Ford C-Max Hybrid (3,197; not on the market in April 2012). But the Lincoln MKZ (884 sales, 122.67% higher than the 397 sold in April 2012), Ford C-Max Energi PHEV (411; not on the market in April 2012), Ford Fusion Energi PHEV (364; not on the market in April 2012), and Ford Focus Electric (147; not on the market in April 2012) also boosted the companies green vehicle sales.

The Nissan Leaf, still riding the sales surge created by its considerable price drop, rolled off the lot 1,937 times in April 2013, 423.51% more than the 370 figure from April 2012.

Mitsubishi was the only other company to see a sales increase, with a modest 127 units of its Mitsubishi i sold, 60.76% more than the 79 sold in April 2012.

However, everyone else saw a downshift in views.
•GM had 12.08% fewer views in April 2013 compared to April 2012, with the Chevy Volt dropping 10.67%.
•Honda had a 12.08% drop over the same time period.
•Porsche had a 60.77% drop.
•Toyota had a 12.27% drop.

Overall, hybrids and electric vehicles (combined) grew 12.84% in April 2013 compared to April 2012. For the year to date, however, they are down 14.43% compared to 2012.

As you should be able to see in the table above,

cleantechnicaDOTcom/2013/05/05/april-ev-hybrid-sales-report/

RICHARD BLACKWELL
The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, May. 05 2013, 7:00 PM EDT

General Electric Co. executive Steve Bolze is in charge of a huge range of the conglomerate’s businesses, ranging from nuclear power to wind turbines to gas-powered engines. His purview, as president of GE Power & Water, even includes water technology such as purification and desalination. Mr. Bolze was in Toronto recently to talk about how cheap and plentiful natural gas is changing the power business, and how Canada is in the sweet spot for unconventional fuel.

How have low gas prices affected your power business?

Gas prices are going to remain at a lower point than anybody would have forecast four or five years ago. This is not a two-year cycle or a five-year cycle. We see this as a 30-year-plus cycle. We are going to invest accordingly. If I look at product development and technology advancement, gas turbines and compressors are really the biggest space in investment in GE.

How does Canada fit into that?

The macro trend in the world is centred around unconventional fuels and unconventional resources. What you have in Canada is the third-largest unconventional [fuel] resource on the planet. So people are watching. It is one of our fastest-growing regions and one where we have to apply more of a developing mindset in terms of how we invest and how we allocate resources.

One of our businesses is water technology and treatment [and] most challenging projects in the world are in Canada. Technology solutions which are world class are being adapted and prototyped and implemented here first. Canada is really at the epicentre of a lot of what is going on [in the power business]. That is why we are investing here.

What are the key technological advances in the gas turbine business?

One of

theglobeandmailDOTcom/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/general-electrics-steve-bolze-a-man-with-power-on-his-mind/article11721584/

May 6, 2013 - 8:09AM

European carbon prices posted their biggest-ever weekly gain after German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged action on the bloc's plan to delay supply of permits.

The December futures contract advanced 22 per cent since April 26 to close at 3.78 euros ($4.90) a metric ton on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, the highest since April 16. The contracts jumped as much as 23 per cent today, and trading volume doubled to 27 million tons from yesterday's levels.

Prices plunged to a record 2.46 euros last month after the European Parliament rejected a plan to postpone the sale of some permits over the next three years and reintroduce, or backload, them to the market in 2019 and 2020. Prices have slumped 50 per cent from a year ago as the euro area's second recession since 2008 cut demand for permits, exacerbating a glut.

“This is a strong boost, it's exactly what the market needed,” Milan Hudak, an analyst at Virtuse Energy sro in Prague, said by e-mail. “Even though this is a strong signal from Germany, backloading will not happen sooner than in 2014 and we still don't know the final version of it.”

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Europe's emissions-trading system imposes limits on about 12,000 power plants and factories. The program allocates permits to polluters that must surrender enough allowances to cover their discharges of carbon dioxide or pay fines. Lower prices mean it can be cheaper for companies to buy emission rights rather than invest in climate-friendly technologies.

'Great intensity'

Germany's clean-energy law must be overhauled with “great intensity” after the country's elections on Sept. 22 and action should also be taken in the carbon market as lower-than-expected economic growth led to falling prices for certificates, Merkel said today at a Protestant church event in Hamburg.

“Something also has to be done on backloading,

businessdayDOTcomDOTau/business/carbon-economy/carbon-prices-rocket-on-merkel-hopes-20130506-2j20c.html

Karen DeYoung,
Sunday, May 5, 3:46 PM

Israel’s reported airstrikes in Syria — and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government — are likely to accelerate decision-making within the United States, where the Obama administration was already moving toward a sharp escalation of U.S. involvement in the two-year-old crisis.

Senior officials said the deployment of U.S. troops to Syria remains unlikely. But they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the supply of weapons to the Syrian rebels to the use of U.S. aircraft and missiles to ground President Bashar al-Assad’s own airpower by destroying planes, runways and missile sites inside Syria.

Neither Israeli nor U.S. officials confirmed a Sunday morning attack that reportedly hit a weapons shipment in Syria — including sophisticated missiles and air defense equipment — about to be transferred to Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

But Obama, in an interview broadcast just hours later on Sunday, said that Israel is justified in preventing the provision of weapons to Hezbollah.

“We coordinate very closely with the Israelis, recognizing that . . . they are very close to Syria, they’re very close to Lebanon,” Obama said in the interview, recorded Saturday with Spanish-language Telemundo, after an earlier Israeli attack reported late Friday.

Throughout the Syrian crisis, the administration has repeatedly voiced the belief that Syria was already awash in weapons and that sending more would not tip the balance in favor of the rebels.

Now, in part because of growing confidence in the rebel Free Syrian Army, “the national security team and the diplomatic team around the president” favor escalation, overcoming the caution expressed by Obama’s political advisers, according to a senior Western

washingtonpostDOTcom/world/national-security/reported-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria-could-accelerate-us-decision-making/2013/05/05/72c6eafc-b5c2-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

11 hours ago • Christopher Martin Bloomberg News
(34) Comments

More than half the states with laws requiring utilities to buy renewable energy - including Arizona - are considering ways to pare back those mandates after a plunge in natural gas prices brought on by technology that boosted supply.

Sixteen of the 29 states with renewable portfolio standards are considering legislation that would reduce the need for wind and solar power, according to researchers backed by the U.S. Energy Department. North Carolina lawmakers may be among the first to move, followed by Colorado and Connecticut.

The efforts could benefit U.S. utilities such as Duke Energy and PG&E as well as Exxon Mobil, the biggest U.S. oil producer, and Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal mining company. Those companies contributed to at least one of the lobby groups pushing the change, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison, Wis.-based nonprofit group. It would hurt wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems and First Solar Inc., which develops solar farms.

"We're opposed to these mandates, and 2013 will be the most active year ever in terms of efforts to repeal them," said Todd Wynn, task force director for energy of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a lobby group pushing for the change. "Natural gas is a clean fuel, and regulators and policymakers are seeing how it's much more affordable than renewable energy."

Hydraulic-fracturing technology opened aging reservoirs for natural gas drilling, driving prices down about 72 percent from their record 2005 high. That's making more expensive wind and solar power projects harder for utility regulators to justify, according to ALEC and its allies, which include the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"The shale revolutions are not just having ramifications politically and

azstarnetDOTcom/business/local/cheap-natural-gas-prompts-states-to-sour-on-renewables/article_7ebc83ae-a7fa-5332-9521-5aa81325182a.html

Julian Pecquet - 05/05/13 01:37 PM ET

Vice President Joe Biden, the president's point man on gun control, vowed Sunday that the White House and its supporters “will prevail” in the fight for tougher background checks, despite last month's legislative defeat.

Biden laid out his case in the Houston Chronicle, the newspaper of record in the city where the National Rifle Association (NRA) is holding its annual members meeting. The vice president and potential 2016 presidential candidate told a group of law-enforcement officials last week that he plans to revive the push for expanded background checks after a bipartisan effort from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) failed on a 54-46 vote, short of the 60-vote threshold needed to pass.

“We fell short on our first effort to pass Manchin-Toomey in the Senate, but we will not be deterred by one setback,” Biden wrote. “We have an obligation to make sure that the voices of victims, not the voice of the NRA, ring the loudest in this debate.”

Biden said he was galvanized by political developments since last month's vote. Sen. Jeff Flake's poll numbers have collapsed since he voted against the measure – the Arizona Republican described his popularity as “just below pond #$%$” – and Sens. Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan, Democrats from Louisiana and North Carolina, have seen polling bumps.

“For too long, members of Congress have been afraid to vote against the wishes of the NRA, even when the vast majority of their constituents support what the NRA opposes,” Biden said. “That fear has become such an article of faith that even in the face of evidence to the contrary, a number of senators voted against basic background checks, against a federal gun trafficking statute and against other common-sense measures because they feared a backlash.”

“Today, those very senators are discovering that the

thehillDOTcom/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/297835-biden-we-will-prevail-on-background-checks

Ben Geman 05/05/13 06:00 AM ET

Activists are quietly forging ahead with their campaign for carbon taxes despite long odds on Capitol Hill.

Bob Inglis, a former GOP House member from South Carolina, is part of a very loose collection of policy wonks and advocates fighting to change the politics of taxing emissions.

“It’s a longer-term play here,” Inglis said.

Inglis, who launched the “Energy and Enterprise Initiative” at George Mason University last year, sees several forces converging that will enable a carbon tax to surface in a broader fiscal policy deal.

It would happen, he said, by “immaculate conception,” but not until 2015 or 2016.

“It will be nobody claiming paternity for it. It will just develop on its own,” Inglis said in an interview Thursday.

Proposals to impose taxes on emissions from burning coal and oil have been around for years.

But they’ve gained new traction and fresh opposition of late, owing to the collapse of cap-and-trade legislation in 2010, the Beltway search for new revenue sources and the renewed attention to climate change.

Advocates range from longtime backer Al Gore to Inglis to Art Laffer, one of the godfathers of conservative economics. They all back a “revenue-neutral” carbon tax that would be offset by reductions in personal taxes.

Other proposals call for using a tax on various industry sectors — such oil and coal producers or power companies — to pay for deficit-reduction, consumer rebates, green energy programs or some combination.

Tyson Slocum, head of the energy program at the left-leaning group Public Citizen, said there are discussions occurring in “multiple types of formats” and “involving a lot of different kinds of stakeholders.”

None of it is going very far right now.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in late 2012 the administration would “never” propose a carbon tax.

And the entire House GOP leadership has signed

thehillDOTcom/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/297751-carbon-tax-backers-quietly-forge-ahead

Mexico-Panama gas line proposal

Friday, 03 May 2013 09:00

THE REVIVAL of a project to run a pipeline from Mexico to Panama will be presented to Barack Obama this weekend.
The project was conceived in 1996 by the Regional Energy Forum of Central America .

The aim of the initiative is to lower energy costs and make the region more competitive .
Joseph Adam Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise of Nicaragua(Cosep), said entrepreneurs will propose the initiative at the meeting of the Central American Integration System which will involve Obama. "The goal of this project will be to reduce the cost of power generation in Central America and make our production more feasible," said Aguerri.
Cosep estimates reveal that currently in Central America the generation of every kilowatt per hour costs between 17 and 18 cents but if the project goes ahead the cost would drop to 7 or 8 cents reports CentralAmericaData.

In 1998 the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), conducted a feasibility study for a regional gas pipelinebetween Mexico and Central America, which found that: "This initiative would connect Central America with one of the largest natural gas markets worldwide. The gas industry in North America is comprised of several areas with high reserves of this fuel, a major production and a highly developed infrastructure in Canada and the United States, and a booming one in Mexico. There are producing zones very close to Central America, in the states of Tabasco and Campeche in Mexico, a short distance from the border with Guatemala. "

newsroompanamaDOTcom/business/5649-mexico-panama-gas-line-proposal.html

May 1, 2013

Almost all of the new generation capacity in the California transmission system operator’s queue for the second half of 2013 is solar -- 97 percent, to be exact.

There are 1,633 megawatts of new generation capacity in the 2H 2013 queue, according to the 2012 Annual Report on Market Issues and Performance from the California Independent System Operator (the ISO). Of that, 1,581 megawatts are new solar and 52 megawatts are biomass.

By the end of the first half of the year, the ISO will have added 3,391 megawatts of nameplate capacity, of which 2,296 megawatts will be natural gas, 565 megawatts will be wind and 530 megawatts will be solar.

However, what is in the ISO’s queue is not necessarily what will end up in the state’s energy mix, REC Solar Director of Governmental Affairs Ben Higgins pointed out.

But in this report, California ISO Manager of Monitoring and Reporting Keith Collins noted, “the ISO has done its best in determining which projects have a high probably of coming on-line instead of just taking generation in the queue as-is.”

This is likely a very good indication of the new generation the marketplace will build to replace the 2,200-megawatt deficit caused by the San Onofre nuclear facility outage and the mandated closures/retrofits of fossil fuel plants that over-consume the state’s water resources. And it is a strong indication of the kind of building that will be driven by the state’s 33 percent by 2020 Renewable Portfolio Standard.

“This is the shape of things to come,” observed V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT). But it raises two important questions. First, what kind of natural gas plants will be added? And, second, are we getting a lumpy renewable energy portfolio that is heavy on solar and light on everything else?"

The gas plants could be more of the

theenergycollectiveDOTcom/hermantrabish/219501/solar-energy-most-new-generation-california

05/04/2013 6:13 pm EDT

A funny thing is happening on the way to conservative attacks on solar energy—some conservatives are championing renewable energy over fossil fuel interests. The reason is simple: It’s called employment.

It turns out that renewable energy, as popular as mom’s apple pie with American consumers, is also good for American business. And now jobs-conscious legislators from both parties are listening.

Renewable energy standards, or RESs—sometimes called Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), just to add to the alphabet-soup mix—require electric utilities to buy a percentage of their power from renewable sources, such as solar, and wind by a certain date.

These standards range from modest (Indiana wants its power to be 10 percent renewable by 2025) to ambitious (California requires 33 perecent by 2020). An electric utility can meet an RES law any number of ways, which vary by state. Buying electricity from a wind farm in a remote location or from a homeowner’s solar rooftop are two common examples.

Alone, the RES laws won’t make a huge dent in the United States’ carbon pollution. But they’re creating critical mass. Businesses are employing people and making money on a slow shift to renewable power. In the windy Great Plains states, farmers pocket money from wind turbine leases. In sunny California, there are more solar installers than actors.

On the other hand, the fossil fuel industry sees even a small RES as a threat to its business model. So it has partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council to draft model laws delaying or repealing 22 states’ RES laws.

After all, those laws are a government mandate that any freedom-loving state legislature would hate, right? But it hasn’t worked out that way.

In North Carolina last week, Republicans helped defeat a bill that would have phased out a state RES. In doing so,

huffingtonpostDOTcom/2013/05/04/renewable-energy-standards_n_3211017.html?utm_hp_ref=green

SAN JOSE, May 4 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in Central America on Saturday that the United States might be able to help relieve that region's growing energy demands by exporting liquefied natural gas, a move opposed by some U.S. businesses and environmentalists.

Sat May 4 2013 8:39pmBST

* Closes out three-day Latin America tour

* Obama administration mulling natural gas exports

* Opposed by some U.S. interests

By Steve Holland and Isabella Cota

SAN JOSE, May 4 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in Central America on Saturday that the United States might be able to help relieve that region's growing energy demands by exporting liquefied natural gas, a move opposed by some U.S. businesses and environmentalists.

At a development forum that ended his three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, Obama held out the prospect that surging supplies of natural gas in the United States could be sold in the area to help reduce its energy costs.

Obama's Energy Department is to decide in the coming months, possibly this summer, whether to approve more than two dozen applications for natural gas exports to companies in countries that do not currently have a free-trade agreement with the United States. It is one of the first big energy decisions he faces early in his second term.

Obama made a case for taking the step. The United States, riding a surge of natural gas production, is likely to be a net natural gas exporter as soon as 2020, he said.

He said he discussed with Central American presidents at a dinner on Friday night how U.S. natural gas can be used by the region as a bridging mechanism to relieve its energy demands until alternative energy sources can be increased.

"I've got to make an executive decision broadly about whether or not we export liquefied natural gas at all," Obama said. Helping Central America would be a factor in the decision-making, he added.

U.S. companies that produce the gas feel the supply is more than adequate, but some U.S. businesses oppose large-scale liquefied natural gas exports out of concerns it will dramatically increase the price of the energy in the United States.

Environmentalists have raised concerns as

ukDOTreutersDOTcom/article/2013/05/04/usa-obama-centam-idUKL2N0DL0G320130504

National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Image Loop

National Mosaic

radarDOTweatherDOTgov/Conus/index_loop.php

Erik Wasson - 05/04/13 02:47PM ET

Senate Democrats are moving to farm legislation that they think could bolster several red-state incumbents who are seeking reelection in 2014.

Last year, the Senate passed a five-year farm bill 64 to 35 only to see it die in the House because conservatives opposed the funding levels for food stamps.

Democrats believe the failure of the farm bill helped them retain the majority in the 2012 election, and are hoping for a repeat as they enter the 2014 election cycle.

“There is no question that the House refusal to take up farm bill helped Democrats retain the Senate,” said one senior Senate Democratic aide. "Democrats see an opportunity to make headway in red states and rural America."

GOP leaders refused to bring up a five-year farm bill last year, but are sending strong signals that they won’t let Democrats use the issue against them again.

In a memo to the House Republican conference sent on Friday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said he was committed to moving a five-year farm bill this summer.

But passage of a sweeping farm bill is no sure thing in the House. Conservative groups decry the farm subsidies as corporate welfare and have pushed for deep cuts to food stamps that Democrats are unlikely to accept.

In the meantime, Senate Democrats are moving full-steam ahead with legislation that won wide, bipartisan approval last year.

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is poised to announce a committee markup as early as next week, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said a floor vote is coming in May.

Democratic aides and consultants said passage of the farm bill in the Senate could boost vulnerable red-state Democrats like Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), and help the party retain open seats in South Dakota and Montana.

“If Republicans

thehillDOTcom/blogs/on-the-money/budget/297729-senate-dems-embrace-farm-bill-in-battle-to-retain-their-majority

... the first four months of this year, coal-based electricity generation in the United States increased by 12.7%, while that from natural gas fell 10.7%, according to Gencsape ...

03 May 2013

Record output from German wind and solar plants helped to reduce European power prices in April, according to Platts the energy data provider.

European continental day-ahead power prices averaged €45.20 per megawatt-hour in April, compared to €55.02 in March and €49.37 in April 2012. Year on year, this represents an 8.5% reduction in price.

Platts credits this to a number of days when there was record output from renewable sources in Germany, especially on April 24 when solar photovoltaic output exceeded 23GW.

That is the equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants, or one third of the country's working-day afternoon demand.

This is in contrast to UK and continental day-ahead gas prices, which rose in the last 12 months by 17% and 14%, respectively.

“Prices of power for immediate delivery turned bearish across Europe last month, with healthy wind, solar and hydro power output more than offsetting Germany’s production slowdown from the nuclear plant maintenance period,” said Andreas Franke, Platts power editor.

“German day-ahead, peak-load power output for a week day fell to a record low April 18 at €27.15/MWh, as wind and solar power output reached an hourly record of 36GW.”

Germany is installing new solar photovoltaic capacity at a staggering rate: around 270MW per month. In February, for example, this new capacity was spread out amongst more than 8,300 different systems, many of them community owned, and the largest of which was a new solar park in Brandenburg with a total capacity of 8.2MW.

There are complaints in Germany that subsidies for solar power are disproportionately high, taking up half of the country’s funding for renewables but providing only 20% of its renewable energy. As a result, the feed-in tariff rate is being cut by 1.8% at the end of this month.

Nevertheless, solar is very attractive and not just in Germany. 97% (1,581MW) of

eaemDOTcoDOTuk/news/german-renewable-energy-helped-cut-european-power-prices-april