The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "energy costs" ...
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Platts: Russian Gas Giant Mines U.S. Energy Data
Russia’s state-owned natural gas company says the U.S. shale-gas boom is economically unsustainable — and it’s buttressing its claim with financial data collected by an American consulting firm located less than 20 miles from the White House. Moscow-based Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company, is working with Pace Global Energy Services, a consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia, to analyze how much money U.S. gas companies are spending on hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Gazprom, citing the Virginia company’s data, says the true costs of U.S. shale-gas production are upwards of 150% higher than the revenues its practitioners have been reaping in the last few years. Gazprom says this will ultimately lead to the demise of fracking-based shale-gas drilling in the US and other countries that are considering adopting it. But Gazprom’s critics say the company and its unlikely Washington-area ally are spreading “myths and misconceptions” about the U.S.-led shale-gas gas boom so that European and Asian countries will not develop their own shale plays, and will instead continue to buy conventional Russian gas.
Tags: Oil; gas; natural resources; fraud; oil wells
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Utility Ethics Flap
When the top lawyer for Indiana's utility regulatory commission suddenly quit his job to work for the state's largest utility (Duke Energy Corp.), reporters smelled a rat and demanded state records to see if the two organizations had been engaged in improper conversations. The lawyer in question, Scott Storms, had been the chief administrative law judge for the state, ruling on numerous cases involving the utility, notably its new $2.9 billion power plant. What they found was eye-opening. Mr. Storms had been in talks with the utility for many months about a job, even as he was ruling on cases involving the company, and approving huge cost over-runs for a new power plant. The matter was of deep public interest, because the state agency rules on utility rates paid by all state residents and businesses, and it's dealings were compromised by possible undue influence.
Tags: State Finances; Scott Storms; Ethics; Utility; State Records; Duke Energy Corporation
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Power in Play
The series is an ongoing investigation into a proposed nuclear power expansion, which “doubles the size of the nuclear power supply”. The project became the “biggest investment the city ever made”. But what the public didn’t know was it was likely to “cost $4 billion more than what the utility company had been telling” them.
Tags: nuclear energy; utilities; CPS Energy; reactors; financing; costs; South Texas Project
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"Blown Away"
The reporter takes a look at how stimulus money is being spent. He focuses mainly on the money delegated for "green energy," specifically, a grant program that lets developers collect a percentage of their "investment costs" in cash.
Tags: green; energy; stimulus; money; wind; turbine; renewable; investment
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The Tyranny of Oil
"The hardest-hitting expose of the oil industry in decades answers today's most pressing energy questions: How much oil is left? How far will Big Oil go to get it? And at what cost to the economy, environment, human rights, worker safety, public health, democracy, and America's place in the world?"
Tags: oil; america; human rights; environment; health; gas; petroleum; Standard Oil; SEC tax filings; oil futures
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CPS Must DIe
City-owned utility CPS Energy plans to double the size of its South Texas Nuclear Project bye adding two nuclear reactors without knowing how much the new plants will cost. A reports by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy shows that the state's future energy needs don't include the need for new power plants to be constructed.
Tags: natural gas; resource; electricity; solar; coal; Mike Kotera
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Power Failure
Energy deregulation in the state of Texas is the subject as the Daily News reports the $40 billion yearly sales and consumer unhappiness with rates that continue to rise. "Most have seen their electricity rates increase between 67 and 114 percent since the retail market was deregulated five years ago." The investigation finds not only that supply and demand may does no apply to electricity, but also that "some power companies have appeared to engage in anticompetitive behavior and even outright manipulation." And the state's utility commission has done little to remedy the situation.
Tags: Energy; electricity; energy deregulation; energy rates; rising energy costs
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N.Y. Power Authority
The New York Power Authority provides about one-quarter of NY state's electricity needs. Although it is a branch of state government, it acts as a corporation, giving away some of its profits to pet charities of the Board and the Directors, rather than lowering utility costs to customers. Almost 200 of the NYPA's 1600 employees make more than $100,000 a year.
Tags: NY State Public Authority; NYPA; patronage; energy-efficiency programs; U.S. Olympic Committee; Olympic Regional Development Authority's Congressional Winter Challenge; ORDA; Energy Services Program; Governor Pataki
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Hot Fuel
While fuel expands when it gets hot, retail pumps are not making a price adjustment to compensate for the energy lost by using hotter fuel. A century ago, the oil industry set a standard of 60 degrees for fuel temperature, and the Star found that gas in the United States is on average five degrees higher than this. At every level of distribution, a price adjustment is made to compensate for the expanding fuel, but not at the consumer pump itself. "The cost to consumers, by not equipping retail pumps to adjust for temperature, is $2.3 billion per year while state and federal governments lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually in fuel taxes."
Tags: Fuel; hot fuel; gas prices; taxes; price adjustments; 60-degree fuel standard
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The Price of Power
Investigating the effects of Texas' five-year transition to full energy deregulation, KDFW-TV finds that the original assertion that more competition will reduce rates and increase choices, may have been incorrect. In this 27-part series, KDFW found that electricity prices in Texas were twice as high as the national average, they remained high even as fuel costs fell and those who supported and created deregulation profited greatly from the situation. The Federal Courts have not intervened, nor does the State Regulator have the power to step in.
Tags: Energy; energy deregulation; Governor George W. Bush; energy costs; power; fuel prices; power crisis