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The December wholesale exchange contract had an initial rally after the EIA storage figure came out yesterday at a consensus forecast of 78 bcf was published. The December wholesale contract rallied up to the $3.863 area then sellers took over once again and pushed the wholesale contract down to the $3.3778 area. The storage figure for the week ending Oct.28, a new high for the last week of October followed the prior three weeks’ record-setting builds which averaged 102 Bcf. This week’s injection brings end-of-October inventories to 3,794 Bcf, only 17 Bcf shy of year ago levels, due to a combination of moderate weather and a widening year over year supply surplus. Next the week the demand outlook for the next week does not provide any support for heating demand to continue at the levels seen during the past weekend amid forecasts for above-normal temperatures in the East. However, some of the meteorological forecasts for mid-November towards the end of the month call for a change to the colder side.
On the dark side of the industrial economy, the global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago. The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases and extra pollution in China and the U.S. account for more than half the increase in emissions last year. In 2010 people were traveling, and manufacturing was back up worldwide, spurring the use of fossil fuels, the chief contributor of man-made climate change. India and China are huge users of coal. Burning coal is the biggest carbon source worldwide and emissions that jumped nearly 8 percent in 2010. "The good news is that these economies are growing rapidly so everyone ought to be for that, right?
On the prepaid debate occurring in Iowa, it seems that utilities' interest in prepaid electric meters would allow customers' power to be remotely shut off when their accounts run dry. Prepaid electric meters would be either a splendid advancement in accommodating lower-income households or an attempt to circumvent vital consumer protections, depending on which side you listen to in an emerging debate. "It would be a better way to monitor energy usage," said Amy Myers, spokeswoman for the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives. Customers on the prepaid meters could monitor their energy usage so that they can modify their consumption to meet their payment abilities, Myers said, and wouldn't even have to receive bills. Prepaid meters would make it easier for low-income households to establish electric service because they would eliminate the need for utilities to charge a service deposit, equivalent to about one-month's electric bill, according to Bob Haug, executive director of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. If a utility customer's account runs dry, the utility could turn off their electricity immediately by remote control, but they could also reconnect it swiftly without charging a reconnect fee after another prepayment is made. Some consumer advocates doubt that customer service improvements are motivating the prepaid meter push. "It's all about credit and collections," said Jerry McKim, chief of the state's Bureau of Energy Assistance, which administers low income energy assistance for the state. Prepaid metering could mean a recurrent threat of electrical shut-off for such frail populations as senior citizens, customers with life-threatening medical conditions, and household members with disabilities.
Iowa has one of the nation's best consumer protection laws to keep low-income customers from having their electricity or natural gas shut off during the cold weather months. If prepaid meters are allowed, he believes utilities could circumvent the protections. In states that have allowed prepaid electric meters, the fee structures set up by some utilities that offer the service have made electricity more expensive for low-income customers. Now, the Iowa Utilities Board is conducting a formal inquiry into the merits of the practice, trying to determine how it would fit with the existing regulatory and legal framework. It seems to be clear at a recent Iowa Utilities Board workshop on prepaid meters that there wasn't much common ground between consumer advocates and the electric power industry
On the regulatory front, Constellation Energy has emerged as a vocal intervener in Michigan urging the legislative committee to eliminate electric choice restrictions that are artificially raising energy prices and impeding Michigan's competitiveness. David Fein, Constellation's vice president of Energy Policy for the Midwest, told the Michigan State Senate Energy and Technology Committee on Tuesday that the state's 10 percent cap on electric choice is stifling job-creation and innovation, and making it more difficult to retain businesses in the state. The cap has locked out more than 5,500 customers who want electric choice at a time when the state's utilities have raised rates 25 percent or more, Fein said. "These significant electric rate increases are occurring while the rest of the nation benefitted from a roughly 50 percent drop in wholesale electricity prices," he noted. To underscore the implications of the 10 percent cap, Fein asked, "Can you imagine if Michigan had policies that deterred other major automakers from establishing Michigan as a place to do business?" Fein's remarks were made in concert with Energy Choice NOW, a coalition of more than 100 Michigan businesses, consumers, suppliers, trade associations and others committed to legislation to raise the cap on suppliers, lower energy costs and increase competition. Constellation, Fein noted, is among the suppliers that have served thousands of customers in Michigan since the advent of competition. He concluded, "Raising the cap on competition will make Michigan more competitive, the creation and preservation of jobs and retention of businesses within the state, obviously a top priority, can only be accomplished with non-discriminatory access to competitively priced electricity."
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