Fogbow

The utility, which has about 1.1 million gas customers in the Houston area, said it spent an additional $1.25 billion buying natural gas last week as temperatures plunged into the teens — and lower. CenterPoint executives said the company will seek a review from the state Railroad Commission, which oversees natural gas utilities, to pass the added costs onto customers.

The increases would likely come in the the third quarter, which begins in July, executives said. The amount the bills might rise has yet to be determined.

"The company is reviewing all available options to lessen the bill impact to customers," said Alejandra Diaz, a CenterPoint spokesperson.

CenterPoint disclosed the higher natural gas costs during a call with analysts after releasing its earnings for the fourth quarter and all of 2020. The company said its fourth quarter profits rose 27 percent to $200 million from $157 million in 2019. Revenues rose slightly, to $2.05 billion from $2.02 billion in fourth quarter of 2019.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 10:25 am Climate change is going to be expensive for a lot of people. The people of Texas aren't the first to see that, and they won't be the last.

Plenty of Texans want to hire plumbers in the wake of February's crippling winter storm. But part of the problem is that too few Texans want to be plumbers.

A shortage of skilled trade workers —plumbers, electricians and the like — has been growing in the state for the past decade, and that is exacerbating problems for those seeking help with broken pipes and damaged water heaters.

The long-term shortage stems from an expectation that young people go to college and a culture of disrespect for blue collar industries, said Brad Casebier, the owner of Radiant Plumbing in Austin. Chap Thornton, the business manager for UA Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 286 in Austin, added that the state's low minimum wage keeps plumbers from moving to Texas and young people from entering the industry.

“Young people are being told that they’ve got to go to college and plumbing and the trades are like a fall back career,” Casebier said. “And that’s not OK, and so I think it’s a social problem that we have, a cultural problem.”

“When I drive around my own orchard and other places, it looks very sad,” Skaria, the owner of US Citrus, a company known for its fresh produce boxes sent directly to subscribers. The leaves are all brown, and vertical cracks break open the trunks — signs that don’t bode well for the trees’ survival, he said.

Initial tallies indicate more than $300 million in losses to the citrus industry alone — “but that really doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

“That’s just the fruit lost,” Miller said. “The trees are damaged. We’re going to lose a lot of trees. It’s so bad that we’re not going to have a crop next year — all the blooms are gone. They basically lost not one crop, but two crops.”

Oranges and grapefruit bore most of the damage — farmers had already harvested more than half of their supply for the season, but the remaining fruit was devastated. Growers lost all of their oranges and about 60 percent of the grapefruit still on trees; the other 40 percent might be salvaged for juice, Miller said. The freeze wreaked havoc on other crops, too, from onions and cabbage to cilantro and celery.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 3:46 pm If the citrus trees die it takes 7 years to replace them.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:41 pm It seems from the hearing today that Texas state legislators from both parties don't know much about the deregulated electric power market that they created.

because one had to have a HS Degree or GED and the GED classes were too inconvenient for him. *Sigh*

Volkonski post wrote:

If the citrus trees die it takes 7 years to replace them.

I should mention that a lot of people who pick and pack and ship these fruits and vegetables are now out of work.

filly wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:23 pm Meanwhile, our next door neighbors only have water in their pipes due to a long garden hose attached to our outdoor spigot. Scores of homes around us have 12 ft. high piles of debris on their lawns from their flooded homes. Most of them are elderly. IOW, this event is not over for millions of Texans.

Texans who receive their electricity from Griddy Energy are being shifted to other providers after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the power grid for most of Texas, revoked the company’s rights to operate because it missed required payments to ERCOT, according to a market notice.

In all, Texas electricity providers failed to make more than $2.1 billion in payments that were due to ERCOT, according to another market notice Friday. The state entity depends on transaction fees from providers to help operate the state’s electric grid. Those missed payments came after the costs for a megawatt hour of electricity jumped from an average of $35 to $9,000 during the height of last week’s devastating winter storm that contributed to the near-collapse of the state’s power grid.

Griddy made headlines for sending massive bills to customers. One woman in Chambers County filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Griddy of price gouging. In the lawsuit, her attorney claimed the company charged her more than $9,000 for the week of the storm in stark contrast to her normal $200 to $500 monthly bill.

Griddy passes wholesale electricity rates directly to customers, who in turn pay the company $10 a month. This differs from fixed-rate electricity plans which offer a consistent rate regardless of market conditions. Wholesale prices spiked during the storm because the winter weather temporarily knocked many power generators offline, shrinking supply and skyrocketing demand.

The cold snap that left millions of Texans without power and caused burst pipes across the state has also had a pronounced effect on local vegetation. Days after the freeze, with the winter weather now normalizing to mild temperatures for the region, many trees in Galveston remain in a torpid state — with brown leaves, broken branches and a general hang-dog appearance.

“Your Queen Palms, Japanese blueberry trees, citrus trees, olive trees — there’s probably a 90 percent chance that those are just really not going to come back,” said Orvis Himbaugh, owner of Tree Worxx, a company that specializes in tree servicing in Galveston County and the Houston area.

Galveston’s iconic palms, synonymous with the island’s laid-back ethos, bore the brunt of the impact from the harsh weather. The lofty trees — there are more than 20 species of palms on Galveston island — are surprisingly resilient, able to withstand the region’s volatile climate from hurricanes and tropical storms to the occasional frost. But the sustained subfreezing temperatures and vicious winds in February proved too severe for the trees to overcome.

Himebaugh said the palms on the island’s West End were hit particularly hard by the freeze, as there are fewer buildings on that part of Galveston to shield the trees from being pummeled by arctic winds. He added it will take up to two months to determine whether any of the damaged trees will perk up.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 10:25 am Climate change is going to be expensive for a lot of people. The people of Texas aren't the first to see that, and they won't be the last.

Chilidog wrote: ↑Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:30 pm Gas prices are going up.