Duke Energy CEO: Cap-and-Trade Plan Would Raise Electric Rates 40% 02.27.09 By Stephen Power WASHINGTON -- The chief executive of Duke Energy Corp., one of the nation's biggest power companies and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, said Friday that a proposal by President Obama to place a price on carbon emissions would drive up electricity rates in some areas of the U.S. by 40% and warned that it could also lead to "a redistribution of wealth" from Midwestern industrial states to coastal states. Duke Energy CEO James Rogers said he was also concerned that some of the roughly $6...

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Price debate powers along 02.20.09 Why electricity bills have not fallen in step with natural gas As electricity prices rose during the summer, consumers screamed, and electricity executives blamed higher natural gas prices. Since then, natural gas prices have sunk about 70 percent. But electricity prices haven't dropped as dramatically; they're down around 23 percent. Consumer advocates are crying foul, and electricity executives are offering more nuanced explanations for what drives electricity prices. Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature may consider laws to alter the deregula...

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Obama Energy Plan Reaches For The Sky 04.29.08 By Jim Tankersley WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's plans to lead America out of the recession rest in part on a task bigger than a moon shot and the Manhattan Project put together, as complicated as any feat of economic engineering in the nation's history. His goal, which past presidents have spent more than $100 billion chasing with limited success, is to replace imported oil and other fossil fuels with a "clean-energy economy" powered by the wind, the sun and biofuels. The stakes are high. If Obama succeeds, he could spark a domestic...

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