August 2010 Archives

We've written about New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky slamming the New York Independent System Operator, most lately as part of his campaign for state attorney general. But even if Brodsky does not win that position in November, the man who has it now may take a look at the ISO anyway, in his new role as governor.

That would be Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has a happy lead in governor's-race polls. He has a far more measured, even cautiously evenhanded, view of the ISO than Brodsky does, but still he wants to take a look at the issues.

Sometimes disasters lead to much sound and fury from policymakers, and not much else. The terrible mine collapse at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in April generated a lot of noise, regulatory pushes, and some efforts at federal safety-crackdown laws. But one small, unglamorous effort has already resulted in something: transparency.

There's a lot to be said for transparency.

The folks at Tudor Pickering Holt are not so impressed, but we kind of are: US shale-cracking techniques are making their overseas debut.

Services giant Halliburton fracked the first horizontal shale well in Poland recently, the Houston company announced Thursday. The Markowola-1 well in Kozience, about 50 miles south of Warsaw, is an exploratory well to see if the Polish shale holds commercial gas.

It's one of the first instances of US shale cracking technology being used abroad. ExxonMobil has more than 3 million acres of leasehold in Poland, Hungary and eastern Germany, potential gas smack in the middle of markets served by that not-so-reliable supplier, Russia's Gazprom.

The novel transmission project may still be a proposal, but in what has to be a first-ever development, Tres Amigas is forever immortalized as bronze art.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, last month, Tres Amigas not only celebrated the opening of its corporate headquarters, but also had Governor Bill Richardson on hand to unveil a sculpture depicting the proposed energy superstation, which is the brainchild of Phil Harris, former CEO of the PJM Interconnection. Richardson has been excited about Tres Amigas, which would use superconducting technology.

Last week's 33rd anniversary of the Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act, also known as SMCRA, marked an important milestone in the development of the Powder River Basin coal fields, as does November's upcoming 20th anniversary of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, which mandated reductions in sulfur emissions.

More often overlooked in the development of the region, which now annually accounts for about 40% of US coal production, is the construction of the so-called Joint Line, a 100-mile stretch of railroad in northeastern Wyoming used by Union Pacific and BNSF Railway that serves the six largest coal mines in the country.

Can probing the New York Independent System Operator generate any buzz around the Empire State?

Launching a salvo on August 2nd in his run for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky picked the ISO as his target. It's true that New York voters have a better chance than most of relating to the subject of electricity, having paid among the highest electricity rates of anyone in the US, for years. But still. As one Albany Times-Union blogger put it, "Brodsky wonks out."