“If you look at the site as it stands right now you have an opportunity to filter out certain kinds of prices, and what we’re going to do is expand the terms of that filtering so you can simply click a button and it will basically eliminate plans that have hidden fees — plans that are tiered, which means that the price of the individual kilowatt hour may change based on the difference between the use of a thousand kilowatt hours a month and a thousand-and-one kilowatt hours a month that resulted in a large price increase. Basically you can filter those out when you’re searching so you can get a much more apples-to-apples comparison of prices.”

— Public Utility Commission of Texas Spokesman Andrew Barlow on upcoming changes to the Power To Choose website, which is aimed at allowing consumers to find the right electricity provider but has allegedly been gamed by retailers to allow somewhat deceptive advertising, as explained on Dallas KRLD radio’s “Minute With Mitch Carr”

The TER Buzz:

China Imports Large Quantities Of Texas Oil And Gas

By Alex Mills

 

Even though recent international events may create questions about the future demand for petroleum, the domestic oil and gas industry has experienced robust growth in Texas and throughout the U.S. in 2018.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) at the Department of Energy issued its short-term forecast this week predicting increased crude oil and natural gas production and somewhat stable prices.

EIA estimates that U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in July, up 47,000 b/d from June and 1.4 million b/d (13 percent) increase from 2017. EIA estimates oil production will average 11.7 million b/d in 2019….

Utility Bill Scammers Hard at Work in Beaumont Area: News Release

August 13, 2018

Entergy has received multiple reports recently of attempted bill payment scams from customers in the Beaumont and surrounding area.

In the five reports Entergy received on Friday, the customers reporting the scam attempts didn’t fall for the scheme and instead, reported the attempt to Entergy.

In each of the cases, the con artists instructed customers to put money on a pre-paid card, such as a “Green Dot” or other third party card, and then call back with immediate payment. If payment was not made, the scammers threatened to cut off the customer’s electricity.

…

AG Paxton Leads 12-State Coalition in Brief Supporting First Amendment in Public Policy Debates

AUSTIN – Leading a 12-state coalition, Attorney General Ken Paxton Friday filed a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the First Amendment.

The brief, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, supports ExxonMobil Corporation’s appeal of a lower court ruling that dismissed its lawsuit against the Massachusetts and New York attorneys general. ExxonMobil accused them of abusing their authority by punishing the company for its climate change views.

…

Carbon-Tax Idea Resurfaces In Washington

By Alex Mills

 

Some members of Congress recently resurrected a controversial idea. It’s called a carbon tax.

It’s nothing new. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore proposed a similar tax in 1993, and President Obama endorsed another carbon-reduction idea in 2009.

The Clinton-Gore idea was called the BTU tax, which was based on the energy content of energy. It was named after the energy measurement of British Thermal Units (BTU). However, the BTU tax ran into many problems during the debate. Even though it passed the House, roadblocks surfaced in the Senate. The Clinton administration tried to revive the tax by offering exemptions to some energy sources (wind, solar and hydro), manufacturing, and others. They even changed to method of taxation from on energy content to a tax on cost. It never passed out of the Senate….