The Railroad Commission of Texas announced Aug. 31 that David Lindley has been named the new director of the agency's Oil and Gas Division, the arm of the commission that oversees exploration and production activity across the state.
A customer of AEP Texas living in the brush country west of San Antonio could get a phone call three days before a windy afternoon warning that the lights may go out on purpose, then a second notice at 48 hours, a third at 24, and a final one somewhere between one and six hours before the power is cut.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced a new General Land Office initiative on Monday called The Texas Engine: Fueled, Fed, and Fortified, a plan the agency says will put the state’s land and natural resources to work for Texas and the country.
Texas utility regulators approved the state’s first 765,000-volt transmission lines on Aug. 28, clearing Oncor to build 424 miles of them across 30 counties, from near Glen Rose to the New Mexico line, at a cost of about $3.9 billion — and in the same orders they threw out an administrative law judges’ finding that the utility had failed to give some landowners the notice the rules require.
The agency that runs the electric grid for most of Texas told the market at 7:16 p.m. on Aug. 31 — the last hours of the day it had promised an answer — that it would not meet its own deadline for telling utilities which enormous new electricity customers make the first round of grid connections.
The Railroad Commission of Texas said Commissioner Wayne Christian on Aug. 28 highlighted a multistate investigation into organized petroleum theft that produced six arrests and the seizure of more than $12 million in petroleum products, vehicles, cash and other assets.
The Texas Oil & Gas Association hosted its Energy Elevated Technology Showcase in Houston on Aug. 27, spotlighting companies developing tools for produced water treatment, pipeline monitoring, worker safety and environmental services in the oil and natural gas sector.
For nearly 21 years, a Texan who registered to speak at a Railroad Commission open meeting was guaranteed a turn at the microphone.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas will meet Aug. 28 to settle the route of a 370-mile power line from San Antonio to the Permian Basin, the first of three high-voltage paths the state approved out of the oil field to reach a decision.
On Sunday, Aug. 23, Texas homes and businesses drew 90,411 megawatts of electricity in a single hour — more than on any weekend day in the state’s history, and more than on any day ever recorded except one.