TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, it seems, has not joined the Boone Pickens army.

Tillerson doubts natural gas will become a popular transportation fuel, while oilman and hedge-fund billionaire Pickens has staked his reputation on promoting the use of natural gas in vehicles.

And Tillerson isn't just promoting his own petroleum products -- he's investing billions of dollars to boost Exxon's natural gas production. He just thinks we'll need more natural gas for power generation, not for cars and trucks.

"Natural gas as a transportation fuel will probably never be particularly attractive and it's due to basic physics," Tillerson said Thursday at Exxon's annual analyst conference in New York. "To get more comparable energy on board means you've got to either pump it up to higher pressures or you've got to put larger storage tanks."

Pickens has been stumping for the past two years for Americans to shift to natural gas as a vehicle fuel, particularly for heavy duty trucks. He is working to convince the City of Dallas to invest in more natural gas vehicles.

Pickens says the move would help wean the U.S. off of foreign oil, support domestic natural gas, cut energy costs and reduce pollution.

Tillerson said he doubts natural gas cars would accomplish all of that.

The Public Utility Commission on Thursday instructed Oncor to offer customers a free test of their smart meters, rather than charging the usual $25 fee to send a worker to test an installed meter.

Regulations already allow each customer to get one free meter test every four years. Commissioner Ken Anderson suggested the clock reset when a customer gets a new meter, even if the customer has already had his old meter tested in the past few years. The other two commissioners agreed. Oncor charges customers $25 for subsequent meter tests.

So if someone has already been billed for a smart meter test , "there needs to be a refund of that or a credit back," Anderson told executives with Oncor and its Houston counterpart, Centerpoint, during a PUC meeting.

Jim Greer, head of Oncor's smart meter program, said it had conducted about 2,300 smart meter tests so far at customers' request, and Oncor has billed about half of those customers. He agreed to refund those customers.

Of course, the tests aren't actually free. The cost for the once-every-four-years test is part of the rate every customer pays to Oncor. PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said the rate has already been set. So if Oncor ends up doing far more free meter tests than expected, the company would have to ask the PUC to recoup those costs by hiking the rate later.

Commissioner Anderson also asked the utility executives how they are sorting out complaints that the old meters were misread during the meter switch.

Oncor's Greer said, for about 0.86 percent of customers who have new meters, the worker who changed the meter read the old meter incorrectly. An incorrect reading leads to an incorrect bill.

Greer said each meter is read at the home and again at Oncor's central service location. Now, Oncor is matching those readings to find any errors. He said the company has also begun photographing the old meter for a record of the final tally.

"While as a percentage of the total deployment, it's not a huge percentage, the problem is in raw numbers it does sound like a big problem," Anderson said. Oncor has found about 7,000 customers whose old meters were misread.

"It only matters if you're the one that gets the misread," said commissioner Donna Nelson.

The PUC also said Thursday it has hired a company to independently test smart meters. That company, Navigant Consulting, is working on a method to do the testing quickly.

As discussed in a blog post earlier today, a proposed wind farm for West Texas has attracted some high-profile criticism because its owners planned to use Chinese-made turbines and seek a $450 million stimulus grant. (A private-equity group involved in the project, U.S. REG, is led by Dallas investor and Democratic fundraiser Cappy McGarr.)

The project's owners, China's A-Power Energy Generation Systems, Ltd., may defuse some of that criticism with today's announcement that they plan to build an assembly plant in Nevada to supply turbines to wind farms throughout the U.S. In a press release, U.S. REG says the plant would employ 1,000 workers. It's supposed to be operational in 2011.

The announcement may be effective in blocking an effort by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to block the West Texas wind farm from seeking stimulus funds. Not only would this plant produce turbines and employ U.S. workers, it would do so in the home state of one of the few senators who outranks Schumer -- Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"This multi-million dollar investment in Nevada will further advance the Senate Majority Leader's clean energy initiatives while allowing out of work Nevadans to re-enter the work force in high-paying, stable, green jobs," Ed Cunningham, managing director of U.S. REG, said in a statement.

However, the operators didn't announce exactly where they would open the factory. They do say they won't seek incentives to build the plant: "When A-Power selects a suitable site, it intends to arrange the financing of the costs of site acquisition and the construction and operation of the assembly facility from its own funds," the statement says.

Arch Coal of St. Louis bought a 35 percent stake in a coal plant and carbon dioxide capture project Tenaska Inc. is planning to build near Sweetwater.

Arch would supply coal from the Powder River Basin to the project for the next 20 years. The companies didn't say how much Arch paid for its stake.

The 600-megawatt plant is designed to capture as much as 90 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions. Tenaska plans to sell the greenhouse gas to oil companies to inject into aging oil wells to boost production.

Jump for the full press release.

The "Chinese" West Texas wind farm kicked off the debate about whether the stimulus is subsidizing green jobs overseas. At least initially, the project's Dallas- and Austin-based developers and investors said the wind turbines would come from China, while Chinese banks would finance the project. The project's owners would receive about $450 million if they pursue a stimulus grant available to them.

Now, two advocacy groups have issued a report (pdf) that says the Treasury Department has rewarded other companies that appear to make most of their clean-energy goods overseas. Treasury awarded tax credits to 17 foreign-based companies "with operations in low-wage countries," the report says. Their share of the $1.6 billion in tax credits amounts to $406 million. The report also says that 6 U.S.-based firms that benefited from the stimulus program have made "significant new expansions of clean-energy manufacturing operations in low-wage countries."

It should be noted that one of the authors, the Apollo Alliance, includes labor backing. The other author, Good Jobs First, has frequently criticized government-funded incentives for business.

Still, its conclusion is provocative, and seems credible: it appears that some of the companies that have won tax credits appear to be "putting their primary emphasis" on expanding production overseas. The authors cite filings by firms such as Advanced Energy Industries of Colorado, which says the majority of its manufacturing is done in Shenzen, China. First Solar, another beneficiary of stimulus tax credits, operates a Malaysian plant that is 10 times the size of its Ohio facility, the report says.

That was nails-on-a-chalkboard to Sen. Charles Schumer, who has criticized the West Texas wind farm and wants the Treasury Department to suspend the program. Schumer said the report shows "there can be no more disputing that this program is giving a leg up to overseas manufacturers at the expense of jobs here at home."

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has told lawmakers the situation is more complex. Chu says renewable-energy companies developed first in European and Asian countries that offered them stable, valuable incentives. He says the stimulus incentives have spurred foreign manufacturers to set up shop in the U.S., and that suspending the program as Schumer wants would be counterproductive.

The Apollo Alliance's report says Chu's view is possibly true, but offers another possibility as well: "While the 48C credits are likely leading these companies to pay more attention to U.S. production, it is also possible that their U.S. manufacturing activities are little more than fig leaves meant to hide the fact that they are mainly relying on offshore, low-wage activities."

From Randy Lee Loftis:

A study released today by university scientists in Dallas and Austin bolsters suspicions that a saltwater disposal well associated with Barnett Shale natural gas operations was responsible for several small earthquakes in North Texas.

The largest of the quakes measured 3.3 on the Richter scale, and no major injuries or damage were reported.

Geologists from the University of Texas at Austin and Southern Methodist University found no evidence linking earthquakes recorded in 2008 and 2009 to the drilling of more than 13,000 gas production wells in North Texas.

They also found no connection between the quakes and hydrological fracturing, the injection of water underground to force out trapped gas.

They found that a different kind of well used to dispose of saltwater brought to the surface during gas operations might be to blame. They compared the timing, location and depth of earthquakes to the operation of a disposal well at the north end of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and discovered an apparent link.

Click here for the full story.

Guess what? The clean tech folks were outnumbered at one of the world's most important oil conferences.

Oil day of CERAWeek in Houston tends to provide oil executives a platform to argue that their product will remain indispensible for decades. This year, oil day on Tuesday also provided the Obama administration a platform to urge the energy industry to move away from oil.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

While most in the energy business agree the worst of the recession has passed, differing views emerged Tuesday at CERAWeek 2010 about where the industry should focus its efforts in the years ahead.

On one side was the oil and gas industry, which said fossil fuels will be the dominant energy source for decades and that improving technology and abundant natural gas supplies hold the potential to extend that life further.

Vastly outnumbered on the other was Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who said the U.S. must accelerate efforts to wean itself from oil in what will amount to a "new industrial revolution," or risk losing the clean technology race to other countries and doing further damage to the environment.

"Time is running out, and the train is leaving the station," Chu said in a speech at CERAWeek, a premier industry conference hosted by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

Some industry officials were heartened that the Obama administration's lead architect of U.S. energy policy acknowledged the role cleaner-burning natural gas can play in electricity generation and as a "transition to other fuels" in coming years.

But others said it's not enough.

"Gas is more than a bridge fuel," said James Mulva, CEO of Houston-based ConocoPhillips, noting huge gas discoveries in recent years in North America in shales and other unconventional rock formations he said could provide more than a century of supply. "It is part of the long-term energy solution."

Here's a way to squander any good environmental karma you might have accrued. Buy disposable bathroom handtowels from Dallas' own Kimberly-Clark.

From the Associated Press:

Kimberly-Clark Corp. wants to replace the traditional bathroom hand towel with something made of paper, a bid to take advantage of lingering swine flu fears.

The hand towels, expected on nationwide shelves within a month, come in boxes of three different shades of brushed metallics like blue and green that carry 60 sheets for a suggested retail price of $2.99. The sheets are a hybrid of the sturdiness of paper towels but with more softness similar to facial tissues. They have no perfumes or dyes.

It's one of a bevy new products from hand sanitizers to pre-moistened towelettes introduced since such items enjoyed solid sales in the early days of the swine flu pandemic.

You know, there are some people in this world who have rejected disposable handtowels even in public bathrooms.

My experience is limited, but I've seen a few examples: The Japanese sometimes carry their own large, cloth handkerchiefs to dry their hands in public bathrooms (which feels so much better than paper.)

And the Germans often use cloth towels in office bathrooms, particularly in small offices with only a few people.

Of course, the better hotels and social clubs around Dallas stock their bathrooms with cloth towels. And I was surprised to see both paper and cloth handtowels in the bathrooms at Rise, a souffle restaurant in Inwood Village.

Cabs fueled by compressed natural gas could skip the line at Love Field if all goes according to plan at Dallas City Hall tomorrow. The City Council is poised to pass an ordinance that would grant CNG taxis head-of-the-line privileges at the Dallas airport.

The council's briefing materials note that this is part of the region's efforts to reduce ozone and comply with federal air quality standards. The natural-gas-powered cabs spew significantly less carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides -- key components of our ozone haze.

The vote is expected Wednesday, and so far, little, if any, opposition has emerged on the council. When the DFW Airport board passed a similar measure, some drivers called the policy un-American and unfair. The Dallas City Council doesn't seem to share that view.

NRG Energy Inc. won up to $154 million in funding from the Department of Energy to install a system to capture carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant.

NRG plans to install the equipment at its WA Parish plant, near Houston, and to begin operating the unit in 2013. The DOE funding would pay for up to half of the installation.

The company plans to sell the carbon dioxide to oil companies to inject into aging oil fields to boost production.

The move fits with NRG's view that carbon dioxide emissions will eventually be regulated.

The carbon capture unit would take in flue gas from about 60 watts of power plant capacity, which is about one tenth of the amount that one of the Parish units spews. The unit would capture about 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from the gas it takes in.

NRG will use Flour Corp. technology for the project.

Jump for the full press release.

Oncor continued its efforts on Tuesday to convince North Texans that smart meters are working. The company gathered reporters and TV cameras at an Oak Cliff home where Oncor had reinstalled an old mechanical meter beside a new digital smart meter.

Both meters will record usage for the home, allowing Oncor to see whether the smart meter is working. Oncor will do about three dozen side-by-side tests around North and Central Texas.

Oncor wants consumers to have confidence that the meters are accurate. Company officials say electric bills rose during the past few months largely because of the cold weather.

"If there's an accuracy issue, we'll work with the [Public Utility] Commission and our vendor" to correct it, said Jim Greer, Oncor's senior vice president, asset management and engineering.

Lawmakers who voted for the new meters want consumers to have confidence that the meters are accurate. Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, has pressured Oncor to do something about concerns among his constituents that the meters cause utility bills to rise.

Some customers say a happy outcome will ease their concerns.

Homeowner Mark Crosslin said his electricity bill jumped about 9 percent after the meter went in three months ago. "I'm unhappy if it's an error. If it's correct, I'm happy to pay," he told the television cameras gathered in his backyard.

Others are protesting the meters before seeing the test results, which Oncor will begin reporting in about a week.

Three Oak Cliff residents held their own demonstration nearby at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Edgefield.

"I'm so mad, I see red," sang out Tricia Lambert, waving a red shop rag, telling a passing car: "We could have a fourth if you'd join us."

Across Colorado stood Ree Watner, her housemate and co-founder of Smart Utilities Reform Citizens, a budding group that's challenging the accuracy of Oncor's "smart meters."

"We're tired of being overcharged," she said, waving a red rag as well and telling traffic "We're protesting the high cost of utilities. Come join us."

(Roy Appleton contributed to this report.)

Former Sen. David Sibley, one of the founders of electricity deregulation in Texas, might run for his old seat, representing Waco.

Christie Hoppe writes on the Trailblazers blog:

Lobbyist David Sibley, the former state senator who Kip Averitt replaced, isn't exactly beating back speculation that he might be interested in the spot. Averitt said, as explained in an earlier post, that he will resign his seat because of health reasons. Sibley, a lawyer and an oral surgeon, is also a former mayor of Waco.

Here's Sibley's statement:

"Kip Averitt has been an outstanding State Senator and he remains a friend. I understand his health concerns and support him in making the changes he needs over the coming months and years."

"Many in the District have asked about my interest in the position and I am honored they would consider me. In my discussions with supporters and Republican county chairs I have heard a lot about the need for conservative, effective, common-sense government and look forward to continuing these conversations in the coming days."

I'd like to know what this might mean for the electricity industry, in particular, those companies operating coal-fired power plants. Averitt tended to oppose coal plants in Waco. What is Sibley's view?

From Bloomberg:

Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and Total SA are investing in assets that previously weren't worth their time or money after oil-rich nations reduced access to reserves and exploration drilling faltered.

Efforts to find new sources of crude and natural gas are failing more often, with San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp.'s exploration failure rate jumping to 35 percent last year from 10 percent in 2008. Countries such as Venezuela are making it more expensive for companies to develop their resources, if they're allowed in at all. And previously developed fields are drying up, reducing oil companies' future supplies, or reserves.

"Their No. 1 problem is reserves replacement," said Nansen Saleri, chief executive officer at Quantum Reservoir Impact in Houston and former reservoir-management chief at Saudi Arabia's state oil company. "That's the elephant in the room, so that's what they have to address."

To compensate, major producers are investing in projects they once eschewed, including geologically complex oil and gas fields, called "unconventional" by the industry to distinguish them from the easy-to-get oil and gas of earlier years.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon agreed to buy gas producer XTO Energy Inc. for $29 billion in December, 14 months after abandoning its own drilling program in Texas's Barnett Shale unconventional gas formation, where XTO gets more than 20 percent of its output. BP, Total and Statoil ASA bought into U.S. shale-gas joint ventures, and Marathon Oil Corp. and ConocoPhillips are investing in unconventional gas in Europe.

Read the full story here.

Deutsche Bank makes two particularly interesting points in a research note about Exxon Mobil: The company will probably make a big acquisition sometime in the next decade, and Big Oil is grappling with convincing kingdoms and socialist government to share their oil resources.

Deutsche argues that the best use of the cash Exxon has been bringing in during the boom is to buy a big company during the bust.

"Volumes have been broadly flat, and we continue to expect ExxonMobil to make a major acquisition within the next decade as a means to sustain itself. The obvious candidates has been Russia; it may now be through JV with Brazil. The country's massive presalt resource fits all the requirements of ExxonMobil: massive resrouce scale; massive project management challenges, massive capital requirements; long plateau production levels, adn actual ownership access to the resrouce for ExxonMobil. The final requirement now is the toughest to meet, as global oil (for now) is concentrated in the hands of kingdoms and socialist governments which will not likely share ownership."

Deutsche doesn't seem to count Exxon's acquisition of XTO Energy, which gives Exxon big access to natural gas plays. Deutsche analysts prefer oil, because the analysts expect oil prices to remain stronger than natural gas prices.

Oil remains the big prize. The note says:

"Of course volume growth in itself does not allay the greatest fear of the investor as regards all major oil deals, which is that as reserves globally concentrate into the hands of governments, so the marginal growth barrel for the privafte companies becomes lower return because of greater tehcnical and cost challenges, for example, low grade heavy oil or extreme deepwater."

Exxon will hold its annual analyst meeting on Thursday.

Click here to read the report.

From Eric Aasen:

Move over, you sexy, sleek, sophisticated Ferraris, Maseratis and Aston Martins: Make room for the Toyota Prius, the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Fusion Hybrid.

These green cars were featured prominently at this year's Dallas Auto Show - and generated plenty of buzz among the crowds of car fans who flocked to the turntables and spotlights to get a closer look.

The event at the Dallas Convention Center featured about a dozen hybrids, a number that has grown in recent years, said Marianne Jones, the auto show's director of communications. The four-day show ended Sunday.

Cap and trade seemed like a sure thing just a year ago. A slew of big businesses supported it, and the House of Representatives had passed its bill, with many Texas Democrats voting for it.

Then the Senate got hold of it, which precipitated a series of legislative revolts and defections of businesses from groups that support the effort. To recap: there was a boycott of Senator Barbara Boxer's bill by Republican members of the Senate Environment Committee; an effort to revive bipartisan climate-change legislation by Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham; a push by Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in the Senate and Texas' Joe Barton (R-Arlington) in the House to overturn the EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health; a legal challenge of that EPA finding by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and others; and, finally, a revolt against the nascent regulatory action by coal-state Democrats who don't trust the EPA. The Wall Street Journal has a good story today that discusses the last of those items.

Grist suggests that Big Oil is to blame for the Senate stasis. That would be a change from the dynamic in the House, where Rep. Gene Green of Houston lamented that refiners lacked influence.

So is cap-and-trade "dead," as Sen. Lindsey Graham told environmentalists according to the Washington Post? The bill that Graham, Kerry and Lieberman are building supposedly involves a sector-by-sector approach, instead of an economy-wide cap on emissions. The Greenwire story (the Graham link above) reports that the bill is likely to use a cap-and-trade system to control emissions from the utility and manufacturing sectors. In the meantime, the senators and their press aides are working to reframe the proposal as something more palatable than cap and trade, which Republicans have labeled "cap and tax" since it would undoubtedly increase electricity and fuel prices.

It is difficult to predict whether a climate-change bill will be approved this year (although it seems unlikely), but CQ (subscription required) reports today that the Democratic "revolt" is more a venting exercise during an election year. The Democratic legislation would delay EPA regulation for two years, but would not prohibit it. And the Senate would have to schedule floor time to debate it, which seems difficult given the legislative pile-up that involves health reform, jobs bills, etc. "It helps them in terms of meeting the needs of their constituents," Kerry told CQ. "And that's fine."

It appears that cap and trade will remain a Senate sideshow for the rest of this year. At some point, perhaps in the next couple weeks, Kerry et al. will unveil their bill, which will kick off a new flurry of lobbying by industry and enviro groups. It will likely be more modest than the House version. It will probably treat refiners better to secure the support of oil-patch Democrats like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. It will probably make concessions for natural gas, which should win support from senators whose states have experienced the shale-gas boom. And Gov. Perry will still say it's bad for Texas.

The anti-smart meter folks are taking a new strategy. Some are refusing to allow Oncor to install new digital meters.

Oncor spokesman Chris Schein said meter installers encounter about a handful of people each day who refuse to allow the workers to switch the meters.

This morning, 20 people refused.

Schein said some had seen incorrect news reports that the Public Utility Commission instructed Oncor to halt installations. Not true. The PUC on Thursday agreed to hire an outside company to test the meters, but commissioners didn't stop installation.

Some people are complaining that the new meters can cause electricity bills to rise. A group of Oak Cliff dwellers started a group to oppose smart meters, called Smart UR Citizens. They have a blog and a petition.

Oncor spokesman Schein isn't sure what the company normally does when a customer refuses to allow Oncor onto the premises. Technically, the meter belongs to Oncor, even though it might be behind a gate on private property.

Readers, if you've had this experience, please tell us about it in your comments or email me: esouder@dallasnews.com.

Jump for the text of the Smart UR Citizens petition.

From Dave Michaels:

A group of Democratic senators may seek to halt stimulus funding for wind-energy projects over concerns that the program is subsidizing jobs overseas.

The dispute was prompted by a proposed wind farm in West Texas, whose investors planned to use Chinese-made turbines and seek a $450 million stimulus grant. The senators insist that stimulus funds shouldn't go to projects that get most of their materials from abroad and create "the bulk of their jobs" in other countries.

"I don't know anyone who thinks it's right that we use tax dollars to hire workers in other countries," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. "The right thing is for the government to figure out how to do the program right in a way that works for American companies."

The project's developers say they're doing that. Austin-based Cielo Wind Power LP says more than 70 percent of the turbine parts are American-made, including its steel towers and blades.

The project prompted debate in two Senate committees on Thursday, where both Democratic and Republican senators questioned administration officials about whether the project should benefit from the stimulus. The U.S. Energy Department said any effort to suspend the wind stimulus program would cost U.S. jobs and set back efforts to expand clean-energy manufacturing in the country.

Click here for the full story.

Public Utility Commission agreed on Thursday to hire a company to independently test the accuracy of new smart meters, putting to rest concerns that the meters cause bills to jump.

The three commissioners agreed during an open meeting to engage a third party to test meters installed by Oncor and Centerpoint Energy. PUC staff will try to hire someone within the next two weeks for the tests.

The program would extensively test meters in the Bell County area, where the commission has received many complaints, and allow any customer to request testing of his new, high-tech meter. Commissioners instructed Oncor and Centerpoint to waive the normal $25 testing fee.

Eventually, the commission might hike electric delivery rates for all consumers to pay for the program.

"We will ride herd over this process because we want to be unbiased, third party, objective," PUC Chairman Barry Smitherman said.

The program is a reaction to concern among consumers and legislators that the new meters being installed across the state have caused electric bills to rise.

The New York Times reports on a cultural connection between a belief in evolution and doubt about global warming.

For example, the story says: "Last year, the Texas Board of Education adopted language requiring that teachers present all sides of the evidence on evolution and global warming."

The article points out an opposition trend, called the Creation Care movement. Creation Care adherants believe it is a Christian's duty to care for the earth and to help prevent global warming.

However, according to this article, the cultural connection is stronger between creationism and global warming doubt. The article goes on:

Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist who directs the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University and has spoken against efforts to water down the teaching of evolution to school boards in Texas and Ohio, described the move toward climate-change skepticism as a predictable offshoot of creationism.

"Wherever there is a battle over evolution now," he said, "there is a secondary battle to diminish other hot-button issues like Big Bang and, increasingly, climate change. It is all about casting doubt on the veracity of science -- to say it is just one view of the world, just another story, no better or more valid than fundamentalism."

Not all evangelical Christians reject the notion of climate change, of course. There is a budding green evangelical movement in the country driven partly by a belief that because God created the earth, humans are obligated to care for it.

Yet there is little doubt that the skepticism about global warming resonates more strongly among conservatives, and Christian conservatives in particular. A survey published in October by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that white evangelical Protestants were among those least likely to believe that there was "solid evidence" that the Earth was warming because of human activity.

Two newspaper giants, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, published pieces over the weekend about the TXU buyout. It's interesting reading, nice recaps of what's happened since the company became Energy Future Holdings three years ago.

The Wall Street Journal writes about the number of George W. Bush cronies the company hired to get the buyout deal past the Texas Legislature and regulators. It doesn't mention Ron Kirk, Barack Obama's U.S. trade rep, and the guy in charge of TXU's legislative lobbying effort.

The New York Times offers an in-depth description of the deal and how it might unravel. The key sentence: "The buyout was, in effect, a gargantuan bet that natural gas prices would keep climbing; instead, plunging prices coupled with a hobbled national economy have cut into the cash the company generates."

Folks, the deregulated market requires a certain amount of computer savvy and a whole lot of research to get through to maximize its benefit to Texans. You can read a bunch about the subject in a big piece that I helped Elizabeth Souder with last week.

I just switched my provider in hopes for savings. I've got a 2,200-square-foot house in Lake Highlands that gets very little sun exposure, and our highest bill for electricity was just under $200 with StarTex power. We're not a great example of how Deregulation can help because, frankly, we don't use enough energy in a year to get a huge price difference. We only use about 10,000 kilowatt hours a year.

But my 2-year deal with StarTex is up this month, and I went shopping. Click onward for what I decided to do.

Updated with dollar amount.

Since my last blog update 40 minutes ago, Oncor decided to add more funding to its solar incentive program this year.

The company had already gone through more than $5 million in incentive funding for the popular subsidy this year, and had closed the program. Now, as of Friday, the Oncor solar subsidy program is again open for business, with another $2.5 million oin funding.

"We are reallocating money so we can continue to operate through the end of the year," said spokeswoman Carol Peters.

Peters said the company had been considering expanding funding this year, as it made big incentive payouts during the past few weeks, but hadn't made a firm decision until now. She said Oncor will continue to monitor demand so see if the program needs more funding.

Looks like it's a go for Oncor's sister company, TXU Energy, to market its solar lease program. TXU is owned by Energy Future Holdings, which also owns 80 percent of Oncor.

Oncor's incentive program for solar panels has been hugely popular. So popular, in fact, that Oncor has already handed out all of the incentive money for this year.

It's February.

"It's like tickets to a rock concert," said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein, about the various incentive programs the company operates.

Spokeswoman Carol Peters said 72 projects have been installed so far this year using Oncor incentives. The company has handed out more than $5 million this year.

Since the program began in 2009, Oncor has paid subsidies for 15 commercial, 9 government or nonprofit, and 129 residential projects. Those projects amount to 1,577 kilowatts of capacity.

Peters said anyone who wants to participate in the program next year should sign up during the fourth quarter of 2010.

Peters said Oncor is considering adding more funding for 2010, but hasn't made a decision yet.

What does this mean for TXU Energy's new solar program, which will depend on those incentives? I'm waiting to hear from TXU.

The Texas Department of State Health Services collected blood and urine samples from residents in the Dish area to test whether natural gas activity is affecting their health.

DSHS spokeswoman Allison Lowery said the department collected the samples from 28 randomly-selected adults last month.

"We're going to be looking at those samples to try to determine if there are elevated levels of vocs -- volatile organic compounds -- and that would include benzene," she said.

Dish, which hosts natural gas compression stations and other natural gas production equipment, is the town that conducted its an air quality study last year. That study prompted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to study air quality across the Barnett Shale natural gas field, finding elevated levels of benzene in some places.

Lowery said the mayor of Dish, Calvin Tillman, had asked the DSHS to conduct the health study.

The department sent the blood and urine samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for analysis. Results are due in the next week or so, she said. She said the department will notify the study participants of the results and issue a report to the community.