Tag: Texas

German Industry Warns Energy-Price Shock is Crippling Investment and Growth

Clark Savage78

German companies are delaying investments and increasingly eyeing production moves abroad as stubbornly high energy costs erode competitiveness, according to the latest survey from the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). The findings, highlighted in a July 27, 2026 Bloomberg report drawing on the DIHK’s Energiewende Barometer 2026, underscore deepening structural pressures from Germany’s […]

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Texas ERCOT Grid Holds Beyond 91 Gigawatts in Heat Wave – At what cost?

Clark Savage149

On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, extreme Texas heat drove air-conditioning demand that pushed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid past 91 gigawatts for the first time. Unofficial real-time figures from ERCOT’s website showed a peak around 91,300 megawatts near 5 p.m. CT, with system-wide demand data indicating highs near 91,089 MW. This shattered […]

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WellDatabase Weekly Rig Report for July 18, 2026: US Rig Count Climbs Up 11 with Strong Horizontal and Oil Activity

Clark Savage178

The latest WellDatabase US Rig Report (dated July 18, 2026) shows the U.S. active drilling rig count at 567, marking a solid +11 week-over-week (WoW) increase and +37 year-over-year (YoY) gain. This reflects resilient drilling activity amid a stable-to-rising trend over the past 12 months, with the count holding in the mid-to-high 500s range. Key […]

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Energy Stocks Worth Looking Into for the Data Center Power Boom

Clark Savage202

The AI-driven data center boom is reshaping U.S. energy demand, with hyperscalers (Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and others) pouring hundreds of billions into new facilities that require massive, reliable, 24/7 power. Natural gas—via pipelines, turbines, onsite generation, and supporting equipment—is emerging as a critical bridge fuel due to its dispatchability, speed of deployment, and […]

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Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier warned of greater refining and petrochemical earnings volatility from Hormuz disruptions

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Phillips 66 Chairman and CEO Mark Lashier issued a clear warning on June 24, 2026, at the Reuters Global Energy Forum in New York: refining and petrochemical earnings face greater volatility due to ongoing uncertainty from disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Lashier highlighted how uncertainty in crude supply and shipping lanes causes refining margins […]

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US Grid Equipment Shortage Deepens Impacting Repairs and New Installations

Clark Savage350

The U.S. power grid faces a deepening equipment crisis, with power transformer lead times reaching record highs and constraining everything from routine repairs to major new infrastructure projects. According to recent industry data, standard power transformer delivery times now average 128 weeks (nearly 2.5 years), while generator step-up (GSU) transformers average 144 weeks, with some […]

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Texas Gov. Abbott Directs PUC and ERCOT to Shield Texans from Data Center and Infrastructure Costs

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AUSTIN, Texas — In a decisive move to protect residential electricity ratepayers amid Texas’s explosive data center boom, Governor Greg Abbott today directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to ensure that data centers fully fund their own electric infrastructure costs — preventing any of those […]

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China Starts Prefabricated Power Hub for Data Centers, CCTV Says. – There is a right way to do Data Centers Emerging

Clark Savage115

China is moving fast to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in the global AI race: powering data centers quickly and cheaply. According to state broadcaster CCTV, the country has just launched its first prefabricated computing power hub in the eastern city of Qingdao, Shandong province. This modular power solution promises to slash construction time […]

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An Economic Assessment of the 765-kV Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan Brent Bennett, Ph.D. talks about An Alternative Approach to Enable Cost-Effective Growth

Clark Savage124

Texas is facing explosive electricity demand growth from the Permian Basin’s oil and gas operations, data centers, manufacturing, and electrification. In response, ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) have fast-tracked the 765-kV Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP)—including the Permian Basin Reliability Plan (PBRP)—a massive build-out of high-voltage transmission lines designed to import […]

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Data Centers Are Moving to Unincorporated Areas to Avoid Citizen Decision Impacts – Energy News Beat Exclusive Analysis

Clark Savage145

In rural Texas, a quiet but transformative shift is underway. Developers are increasingly siting massive data centers in unincorporated areas—where county governments have far less regulatory authority than cities—bypassing the kind of local zoning, public hearings, and citizen pushback that could slow or stop projects in more populated zones. This strategy is playing out dramatically […]

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