Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Thu, Apr 16 1992 Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 05:42:24 EDT Message-ID: 04-16 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update April 16, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OIL IMPORTS RISE IN MARCH: The USA became more dependent on foreign oil in March. Oil imports jumped nearly 9%, while U.S. production fell to the lowest since 1986, the American Petroleum Institute says. Imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products rose 8.7% from a year earlier to 7.1 million barrels a day, continuing an upward trend started in January. Crude production fell 2.8% to 7.3 million barrels a day. CHRYSLER TO BUILD ELECTRIC VANS: Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca announced plans Wednesday for the No. 3 U.S. automaker to begin selling battery-powered minivans in California this fall - the first car company to sell mass-produced electric vehicles that meet modern federal safety standards. The catch: The vans will cost $100,000 to $120,000 each and will be sold to utility companies, not individual consumers. (For more, see special Van package below.) OIL PRICES INCREASE: Gasoline led a rebound Wednesday in fuel and crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light sweet crude oil for May delivery edged up 1 cent to $19.87 a barrel; May heating oil climbed 0.51 cent to 55.59 cents a gallon; May unleaded gasoline jumped 1.14 cents to 59.37 cents a gallon; May natural gas rose 6.4 cents to $1.34 per 1,000 cubic feet. UTILITY OUTPUT SURGES IN MARCH: Production at the nation's factories, mines, and utilities rose 0.2% last month, fueled by a 2.1% jump in utility output due to colder-than-usual weather. Factory production rose just 0.1%. And mining output, which includes production at oil wells, fell 0.2%. The slight rise in the Federal Reserve's index of industrial production for March followed a 0.5% gain in February. SYNCOL TO BE SHIPPED SOON: The first shipment of Syncol - a coal with less than 5% moisture and without sulfur-bearing iron pyrite - is expected to be shipped within two to four weeks from a $69 million U.S. Department of Energy "clean coal" project in Colstrip, Mont. DOE, Montana Power Co. and Northern States Power are partners in the project. BG&E EXECS PAY WON'T BE LIMITED: Baltimore Gas & Electric stockholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal Wednesday to limit pay of company officers to 20 times the salary of the average employee. The proposal, which would have capped executive salary and compensation packages at about $800,000, was shot down by more than 86% of shareholders attending the company's annual meeting. NOBLE SELLS NATURAL GAS STAKES: Noble Affiliates Inc. said Wednesday that it and its subsidiary, Noble Natural Gas Inc., have agreed to sell the 51.67% of their natural gas interests to LG&E Gas Marketing L.P. and British Gas plc. for $51.1 million. Noble is selling a 31.67% interest in Natural Gas Clearinghouse and the 20% interest of Samedan Pipe Line Corp. in NGC's Arklatex gas processing and gathering facility. FLA. GAS TRANSMISSION FILES: Florida Gas Transmission Co. Wednesday filed an amended application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that includes the final design of its proposed pipeline. FGT says it has executed service agreements with 30 customers as part of its Phase III expansion to transport approximately an annual average of 530 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to Florida. GREEN BALLOT MEASURES AHEAD: Voters will face almost as many environmental referendums this November as they did in 1990. Ten states - Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming - have listed statewide ballot issues. Fourteen county measures are also on ballots. The statewide measures include proposals to shut down the Trojan nuclear reactor in Rainier, Ore. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON VAN: CHRYSLER BEING AGGRESSIVE: Shearson Lehman auto analyst Joseph Phillippi says that even though Chrysler is only selling its $100,000-plus electric minivan to utility companies, "they should get more than a little bit of credit for jumping in." Other automakers are experimenting with battery power, but none is going to market as aggressively as Chrysler. VANS TAKE 8-9 HOURS TO CHARGE: The Chrysler vans - called TEVans - look just like regular minivans from the outside, save for a recharging plug in the front fender. Under the hood is an electric motor and battery charger. The vans take eight to nine hours to recharge, can run at least 100 miles on a charge and have a top speed of 65 mph. But it takes about 30 seconds to hit top speed. IACOCCA EXPECTS PRICE TO FALL: Iacocca, who announced the battery vans in New York at a meeting of the International Motor Press Association, says he expects the price to fall if the first few are successful and other fleet customers order TEVans. The TEVan is on display at the New York International Automobile Show at the Jacob Javits Center. The show will be open to the public Saturday through April 26. BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH NEEDED: To make the TEVan's cheaper and faster requires a breakthrough in battery technology. Today's conventional batteries are so heavy that installing enough to run a vehicle can add 2,000 pounds to the car. Also, they wear out in about two years. Replacing them can cost more than $1,000. Long-lasting, lightweight, high-powered batteries remain exotic technology and cost several times as much. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (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. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM