Continuing strong growth in U.S. demand for electricity during the next 25 years, coupled with declining reserve margins, underscore the “hard reality that it is time to invest in America’s electric future,” EEI President Tom Kuhn said today in his annual “state of the industry” speech.

Hunton Energy is planning to construct a $2.4 billion power plant to provide energy to area schools, hospitals and Fort Bend County government entities

The United States will begin buying crude oil this spring as part of the Bush administration's plan to eventually double emergency reserves to shore up energy security, the White House said on Tuesday.

Investors poured about $4 billion into new U.S. wind energy projects in 2006, boosting the nation's total wind-generation capacity by 27 percent, a trade group said Tuesday.

TXU Corp., the largest Texas electricity producer, said its plan to build $10 billion of coal-fueled power generation in the state appears "consistent with" a business group's proposal to curb global warming by capping carbon-dioxide emissions.

GE's energy finance unit will take a 20 percent stake in a power plant project using coal gasification, a sign that the cleaner-burning technology is attracting the attention of investors with deep pockets.

Less than 1 percent of the country's power comes from wind, but it is the second-largest source of new power generation projects in the U.S. behind natural gas. Some 2,400 megawatts of new wind power were built in 2005, and about 3,000 megawatts are expected in 2007.

Texas has seen some of the nation's heaviest wind development activity. In 2006, it passed California as the state with the most wind power generation, with 2,631 megawatts of capacity.

Engineers have cut the price of electricity derived from wind by about 80 percent in the last 20 years, setting up this renewable technology for a major share of the electricity market. But for all its promise, wind also generates a big problem: because it is unpredictable and often fails to blow when electricity is most needed, wind is not reliable enough to assure supplies for an electric grid that must be prepared to deliver power to everybody who wants it — even when it is in greatest demand.

AUSTIN — When people envision the Lone Star State, they see ten-gallon hats, wide open spaces, immense economic opportunity and a state bursting with pride. Everything is bigger in Texas. Unfortunately, that includes our energy bills.

During a legislative hearing last year, an official of the organization that manages the state's power grid said that Texas would have plentiful electricity for years to come.

This year, new forecasts suggest that the picture has changed considerably. By 2010, the cushion between supply and demand will fall to about a third of the required 12.5 percent, raising the threat of potential grid problems or rolling blackouts.