Archive for June, 2007
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 29 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
Forbes.com:
Long-distance phone companies cannot block customers from dialing free chat lines to avoid incurring charges imposed by local carriers that connect these calls, federal regulators said Tuesday.
The Federal Communications Commission said the ruling removes any doubt about whether long-distance companies may use such call blocking tactics to avoid per-minute charges levied by local carriers. It said no carriers “may block, choke, reduce or restrict traffic in any way.”
Several carriers - including Sprint Nextel Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., and AT&T Inc. - have filed lawsuits against rural phone companies that impose higher per-minute rates to long-distance companies for connecting their calls with the local network.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 28 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear
Voice of America:
President Bush says America needs to rely on alternative sources of energy, including nuclear power, to meet its future needs…
Nuclear power fell out of favor in the United States following an accident at the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania in 1979. The Bush administration says since then, improvements in safety technology have made nuclear energy viable once again.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 28 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy
USAToday:
A power outage on Wednesday briefly brought some of New York’s busiest subway trains to a halt, forced the Metropolitan Museum of Art to close and left tens of thousands in the dark on a sweltering afternoon.
The outage, stretching from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to the Bronx, occurred shortly before 4 p.m. and lasted about an hour. It momentarily evoked memories of the blackout that crippled New York City and swaths of the Northeast and Midwest in August 2003.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 28 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: General
Harrisburg Patriot-News:
A state program to help low-income families pay their utility bills is highly vulnerable to fraud and abuse, Auditor General Jack Wagner said Wednesday.
Some applicants used Social Security numbers of dead people to apply for aid, Wagner’s office found.
Other abuses uncovered included using Social Security numbers to file multiple applications, different addresses claiming the same household members and variations in addresses used to claim multiple benefits, he said.
More…
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Energy, International, M&A
The New York Times:
The Spanish power company Iberdrola plans to buy the regional utility owner Energy East Corporation for $4.5 billion in cash, the companies announced Monday.
The boards of the utilities, meeting in New York and Madrid, agreed to the deal, which would give Energy East shareholders $28.50 a share, representing a 27 percent premium over the closing stock price Friday of $22.37.
The deal, which is expected to close next year, requires approval by Energy East shareholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state agencies.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Water
The New York Times:
Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco has issued an executive order barring city departments, agencies and contractors from using city money to buy and serve water in plastic bottles when tap water is available. “In San Francisco, for the price of one gallon of bottled water, local residents can purchase 1,000 gallons of tap water,” the order said. Mr. Newsom estimated San Francisco could save $500,000 a year under his directive. Bottled water is no better than tap water, and the bottles worsen pollution, he said.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 25 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
AP via Forbes:
Telecommunications company Embarq Corp. said Monday former Congressman Richard A. Gephardt will join its board of directors.
Gephardt, 66, served as House majority leader until 1995 and as minority leader until 2003.
“As a highly regulated company, Embarq will benefit greatly by having a board member of Dick Gephardt’s stature within, and knowledge of, the American political system,” said Dan Hesse, chairman and chief executive, in a statement.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 22 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Environment
Energy Biz Insider:
The next wave of hydropower may be tidal power, or harnessing the energy of the oceans and rivers to generate pollution-free electricity. It’s a budding sector. And producers have come up with a host of new technologies that they say will speed development.
The products that create electricity from the tides include everything from spinning turbines to floating buoys. Like all emerging technologies, those within the tidal power sector are vying with other entities for investment dollars. But firm commitments are necessary not just from utilities to include it as a fuel mix, but also from governments to help the technology get over the hump and into the marketplace — just as some nations are now trying to foster advances in nuclear and coal technologies.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 21 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy, Environment
Wall Street Journal:
A half-dozen utilities are trying prepaid programs now, but that could accelerate quickly if Texas utility regulators approve rules this summer allowing it. Experimentation with prepaid-service meters is part of a broader trend that is changing the electric meter from a dumb recorder of kilowatt hours consumed into a conservation tool capable of helping people monitor their use and which will allow utilities to talk directly to customers.
Billions of dollars are being spent by utilities to install advanced meters that track the amount of energy consumed at different times of the day, a capability that is expected to lead to rate plans that include higher prices when wholesale energy costs are higher and cheaper prices at times of slack demand.
But it’s also possible that utilities trying to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants in response to looming global warming legislation could use the meters to encourage conservation. If more people paid for electricity in advance, like they do for gasoline, they might want to make it stretch further…
In the next few years, some experts expect prepaid electric service to become a standard feature of U.S. utilities, as it already is in the U.K., China and South Africa.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 21 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: General, Water, International, Environment
Herald Sun [Australia]:
REMOVING salt from sea water to overcome a worldwide shortage of drinking water could end up worsening the crisis, environmental group WWF has warned.
Desalination - the filtering and evaporation of sea water - is very energy-intensive and involves significant emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are a factor in the shrinking supplies of freshwater, the Swiss-based group said…
The WWF, or Worldwide Fund for Nature, estimated there were more than 10,000 desalination plants around the world. It said the sector would likely grow exponentially in coming years as governments seek to supply water to fast-growing arid areas in the US, India, China and elsewhere.
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