Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Wed, Jun 24 1992 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 05:16:10 EDT Message-ID: 06-24 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update June 24, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OIL UP IN UNCERTAIN TRADING: Oil prices showed a modest increase Tuesday as traders waited to see whether Iraq would re-enter the world petroleum market. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in August settled at $22.59 per barrel, up 11 cents, at the New York Mercantile Exchange. The market was still not sure what to make of a session between U.N. and Iraqi negotiators to discuss resumption of Iraqi oil sales. GAS, HEATING OIL ARE UP: Unleaded gasoline for delivery in July settled at 65.13 cents a gallon, up .18 cent Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Home heating oil for delivery in July settled at 62.11 cents a gallon, up .27 cent. Natural gas prices fell, with contracts for delivery in July settling at $1.517 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 2.8 cents. CONSERVATION COULD BE ANSWER: Utilities can halve their need to build costly power plants over the next decade by encouraging energy efficiency, energy experts said Tuesday. But utilities must first overcome two obstacles - consumers' reluctance to spend more and state regulators' hesitance to change long-established regulatory schemes, witnesses told a House Government Operations subcommittee. (For more, see special Utilities package below.) SENATORS FIGHT FOR PERMIT RIGHT: Democratic Nevada Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid are holding the Comprehensive National Energy Policy Act of 1992 hostage. The senators want guarantees that Congress will allow Nevada to keep the right to require federal agencies to get permits before they can study storing nuclear waste there. Yucca Mountain, Nev., is the only site under study for storing high-level nuclear waste. DOE WANTS AUTHORITY REVOKED: The Department of Energy says Nevada is using its environment permit-issuing authority to delay federal studies. It wants Congress to pre-empt Nevada's permit-granting authority. That language isn't part of the Senate version of the Comprehensive National Energy Policy Act. House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., got it in the House version. PUC APPROVES SCRUBBER PLAN: The Allegheny Power System Tuesday said that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved Monongahela Power Company's scrubber plan. Monongahela plans to comply with Phase I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 by installing scrubbers at Harrison Power Station and low nitrogen-oxide burners and continuous emissions monitoring equipment at various other plants. EIGHTY-FIVE GUILTY OF TAMPERING: Eighty-five companies and individuals have pleaded guilty to criminal charges of tampering with coal dust samples following a yearlong investigation by the Labor Department, Labor Secretary Lynn Martin said Tuesday. The Labor Department said most of the companies removed coal dust from samples before submitting them to the department. BILL TIGHTENS OIL TAX LOOPHOLES: New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio has signed a bill to tighten loopholes in fuel oil taxes by July 1. The old system, which taxes diesel fuel but not No. 2 home heating oil, is conducive to fraud, according to officials. Diesel fuel and No. 2 home heating oil are essentially the same thing, except the home heating oil is cheaper. The state hopes to collect at least $20 million a year. PRICE OF GAS IS UP AGAIN: The national average price for self-serve unleaded regular gasoline is .8 cent higher this week at $1.184 per gallon, the American Automobile Association reported Tuesday. That's the highest price since the start of Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Then, the price of regular unleaded self-serve gasoline averaged $1.225 per gallon. CENTERIOR EXTENDS BUYBACK: Centerior Energy Corp. Tuesday said it extended a 1.5-million-share common stock buyback program two years. The deadline now is June 30, 1994. About 130,000 shares have been purchased under the program begun last July 23. The utility company said that the buyback is aimed at enhancing investor value and improving future per-share earnings. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON UTILITIES: CONSUMERS DON'T WANT TO SPEND: Two key obstacles must be overcome for utilities to cut the need to build costly power plants, witnesses told a government committee Tuesday. Consumers often are reluctant to spend more on more energy-efficient appliances unless they get it back in savings in two years. And not all state regulators are quick to change regulatory schemes tying utility profits to the amount of electricity put out. CONSERVATION TO BE MORE KEY: Rep. Mike Synar, D-Ohio, said the tough anti-pollution requirements of the Clean Air Act and reforms introducing industry competition will make conservation more important. Synar is chairman of a House Government Operations subcommittee that heard from witnesses Tuesday. "We are getting a chance to examine a grand experiment," he said. CONSUMERS URGED TO SAVE: The United States may require up to 104,000 megawatts of new generating capacity by 2000, the equivalent of 100 or more large power plants, according to the Energy Department. But because of costs and environmental concerns, utilities are testing "demand-side" programs that encourage consumers to save energy, said Jim Wells of the General Accounting Office. (End of package.) Energy Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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