The Battle Over Lighting (Part 3)

Submitted by Heartland Energy Colorado

Cities Service was a model for a much larger public utility empire created by Samuel Insull, who started out as the English representative of a U.S. bank representing Thomas Edison’s interests in London. He ended up working directly for Edison as his private secretary by day and learned the electricity-generating business at the Pearl Street plant by night. He eventually rose to third place in the newly formed General Electric, a merger involving Edison Electric, then to Chief Executive of Chicago Edison, and finally to chairman of Peoples Gas in Chicago, where he managed a corporate turnaround. This string of success led to the 1912 founding of Middle West Utilities and later to Insull Utility Investments, both holding companies for electric and gas utilities. By 1926 Insull’s utility empire encompassed 6,000 communities across thirty-two states, and by 1930 it has grown to four million customers and 12 percent of the nation’s electricity-generating and gas-distribution capacity.

The War Industries Board encouraged the formation of nationwide industrial organizations to carry out its mandate to coordinate the nation’s industrial activities during World War I. Natural gas suppliers responded by combining several predecessor organizations into the American Gas Association (AGA) in 1918 to centralize the exchange of information, set industry-wide standards, and encourage cooperation and coordination among its members. The AGA also represented the industry viewpoint to the public, at Congressional hearings, and before natural gas regulatory bodies. The complete conversion of natural gas from lighting to cooking and heating took place at this time, symbolized by natural gas being sold in units of energy (British Thermal Units – BTU) rather than units of illumination (Candlepower).

Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.

(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)

The Battle Over Lighting (Part 2)

Submitted by: Heartland Energy Colorado

As the availability of electricity spread throughout the nation, it did not take long for managers of consolidated gas companies to see the virtue of expanding their merger activities to include electricity-generating firms. The coke by-product from coal gas production could be burned to make electricity and mergers would result in major savings in corporate overhead. The first merger occurred in Boston in 1887, setting the example for the creation of innumerable gas and electric or electric and gas utility companies across the nation. Consolidating gas companies and merging with electricity-generating companies into independent gas and electric utilities further evolved into the public holding company, which owned controlling interests in independent electric and gas companies.

Henry L. Doherty, who started out as an office boy and rose to chief engineer of a natural gas company, formed the first public holding company. Noticing that poorly designed gas stoves were a drag on natural gas sales, Doherty increased gas sales by working with stove manufacturers to improve their product. He switched to marketing, where he was an instant success because of his ability to motivate and lead salespeople, initiating all sorts of promotional activities, and setting high standards of customer service. Doherty then established his own company to provide advice on the reorganization, management, and financing of public utility companies. He began to attract investor interest and in 1910 formed Cities Service Company, the first public holding company. As the name suggested, the company was to serve cities across the nation with gas and electricity and, by 1913, Cities Service controlled fifty utilities in fourteen states.

Heartland Energy Colorado is one of the top hydrocarbon-based energy providers in the USA. They have many drilling locations throughout the country and remain one of the top producers of US oil & gas companies. For more information on Heartland Energy Colorado, see Heartland Energy Development Corporation online.

(Source: "Energy for the 21st Century," Nersesian)

Colorado PUC Hears Debate on Whether it Should Regulate Tri-State

Submitted by: Heartland Energy Colorado

Officials of Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association Inc., Colorado's second-largest electricity generator, and environmentalists debated whether the Colorado Public Utilities Commission should oversee Tri-State at a three-hour hearing Thursday.

And while nothing was settled, both sides clearly staked out their positions before a packed PUC hearing room.

The commissioners are expected to return to the issue in September.

The issue is whether the PUC should expand its power and begin reviewing Westminster-based Tri-State’s long-range forecasts for power demands from its Colorado customers.

Along with that, the commissioners are looking at whether the PUC should have the power to decide what combination of new power plants, energy farms and energy conservation programs the association should pursue to meet that demand – as the regulators do for the Xcel Energy Inc., the state’s largest utility.

Tri-State is the wholesale power supplier to 44 rural cooperatives in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska. Its board of directors is made up of representatives of the customer-owned cooperatives.

State regulators took up the issue in 2008, when it appeared that Tri-State wasn’t moving swiftly to add energy and energy conservation programs to its power portfolio. State law requires that Tri-State, as a group of rural cooperatives, get 10 percent of its power from renewable resources by 2020.

Ron Lehr, a former PUC chairman and a consultant for Conifer-based Colorado energy group Interwest Energy Alliance, said Thursday that efforts to cut Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions requires a state-wide planning effort that could be overseen by the PUC.

"Colorado consumers and utilities face a challenge in transitioning to less fossil fuel, to me it subsumes the jurisdictional dispute that's being laid out," Lehr said. "If they [Tri-State] are as good as they say, they have nothing to fear from PUC review."

But Ken Reif, Tri-State’s senior vice president and general counsel, said the association’s Colorado customers do care about the state as a whole, and are capable of making decisions on their own.

He also noted that in recent months Tri-State has begun taking the steps its critics have wanted, from energy conservation programs to contracting for a 51-megawatt wind farm on the eastern plains and a 30 megawatt solar power plant in New Mexico.

"All the things that I hear Tri-State should be doing is being done at Tri-State right now, without any bump from this commission, with all due respect," Reif told commissioners.

"There’s no reason to believe the commission is any more well-equipped to make these decisions than Tri-State’s board and its board members," he said.

PUC Chairman Ron Binz asked for opinions on how far the PUC’s current authority over Tri-State went. Reif answered that laws protecting Tri-State board’s authority sharply limited the PUC’s power – although he later said there might be room for middle ground.

(Source: cproctor@bizjournals.com)

Heartland Energy Colorado Video

Here is a great video provided by the Heartland Energy Colorado company.

Heartland Energy Launches Ethanol Brand HE85

Submitted by: Heartland Energy Coloado

ALEXANDRIA, LA - November 21, 2006: Heartland Energy Group Inc. (Pink Sheets:HEGP) announced Monday that they have officially launched their new ethanol brand name, HE85, and have entered into an agreement with Casella & Casella, LLP to file trademark applications for that name.

Heartland Energy Group has developed the following ethanol Brand Name Identity to use as a recognizable marketing tool for their Ethanol E85 Brand – HE85. Heartland Energy Colorado Group is developing a national marketing campaign that they plan to launch when the trademark is approved. Heartland intends on putting alternative fuel sections in independent gas stations across the country. The trademark will create asset protection for their future marketing of the Heartland Alternative Fuel line-up. The trademarks are set to co-inside with the Branding Package currently in development.

Roy Thornhill President of Heartland Energy Group, Inc. stated that: He is receiving positive feedback about the marketing plan being developed to create brand recognition for this ethanol product.

About Ethanol:

The growing interest in ethanol, a clean, corn-based renewable resource, has paralleled the escalating price of gas and the urgent need to break the country's dependence on crude oil. Recently, the Big Three automobile manufacturers, GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler, appealed to Congress for incentives to increase the number of gas stations that offer blends of ethanol. Last year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates pumped $84 million into Pacific Ethanol . Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group and worth an estimated $3 Billion, has plans to invest $300 to $400 million to produce and market this alternative fuel. Vinod Khosla, “guru” of Silicon Valley, co-founder of Sun Microsystems , and one of ethanol’s most vocal advocates, has personally invested millions in private companies involved in the development of ethanol.

About Heartland Energy Group, Inc.

Heartland Energy Colorado Group, Inc. is a North American-based alternative fuel resource and Service Company, dedicated to developing the infrastructure for the delivery of ethanol (e85). Heartland seeks to eliminate North America's dependency on foreign energy sources by focusing on innovative engineering that will enable the mass distribution of ethanol. Heartland Energy will also create an alternative fuel section for independent gas stations throughout the United States. Heartland Energy Group will transcend the future of renewable energy resources, with the ultimate goal of creating a cleaner brighter energy solution for North America. For more information, visit www.HeartlandEnergyGroup.com.

Colorado Energy News Launches “Energy Leadership Series

Published by: Heartland Energy Colorado

The leading news and information hub for Colorado’s energy industry is providing overdue recognition to the organizations out in front on energy innovation and development in the state.

Basalt, CO (PRWEB) September 9, 2008 — Colorado is ground zero for energy development in the 21st century, and now the companies and organizations that are helping propel it forward will be recognized in a new Energy Leadership Series sponsored by Colorado Energy News.

ColoradoEnergyNews.com delivers the most comprehensive coverage of the business, politics and technology of the state’s rapidly growing energy industry, including the latest developments in oil and gas, renewables and power generation. The website includes streaming video channels with energy-specific content, including Going Green, Pain at the Pump and Bloomberg Energy News.

“From traditional oil and gas developers on the Western Slope to new solar and wind power projects along the Front Range, Colorado-based companies are creating thousands of jobs and contributing to the state’s emerging position as a leader in both traditional and new energy markets,” says Executive Editor, David Hill.

Natural gas development has become a major energy driver in the Rocky Mountains and Colorado in particular. Piceance Basin in the western part of the state is one of the largest gas fields in the country, fits in perfectly with T. Boone Pickens’ ambitious plan to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. With the state’s boom in gas production has come public policy and environmental issues, which visitors to ColoradoEnergyNews.com can read about daily. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is addressing many of these issues by developing new rules for oil and gas operations in the state, scheduled to become law this fall.

Another important story reported in Colorado Energy News is the Ritter Administration’s drive to attract renewable energy investment, which is paying off with companies, such as Swedish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, constructing new facilities along the Front Range and adding hundreds of jobs. “Colorado should be a model for the world and the U.S. of what can be done in a state when everyone teams up to push for clean energy,” says Roby Roberts, senior vice president of external relations for Vestas America.

State law requiring large utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from solar, wind or biomass sources by 2020 is another key factor propelling Colorado’s new energy economy. Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility company supplying more than 70 percent of the electricity, appears on track to meet the target with several years to spare.

Adding to a highly favorable environment for energy development is Colorado’s rich academic tradition. The state is home to several prominent energy-related education and research institutions, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden; the Colorado School of Mines; Colorado State University, which has a major alternative energy curriculum; and Colorado University in Boulder.

“With our Energy Leadership Series, Colorado Energy News is shining the spotlight on those organizations making a difference in our economy and quality of life,” explains Hill.

“As Colorado goes, so goes the nation. It is an exciting time to be involved with energy and we look forward to sharing with our readers the cutting edge companies that are helping Colorado lead the way in energy solutions.”

The Search for Energy: Evaluating a Formation’s Oil Potential

Determining whether a formation contains oil and gas falls under the realm of formation evaluation. Formation evaluation includes the activities the operator does to test a formation for hydrocarbons. The operator must not only know whether hydrocarbons exist, but also whether they exist in ample amounts. A hole may penetrate a formation that contains hydrocarbons; however, if the formation does not contain enough hydrocarbons for the operating company to get its monetary investment back, the company may declare the hole to be dry. Methods of formation evaluation include examining cuttings and drilling mud, well logging, drill stem testing, and coring.

Several techniques are available to help the operator decide whether to complete the well. One of the simplest is looking at the cuttings the drilling mud carries from the bottom of the hole. A geologist can test the cuttings to determine whether they contain hydrocarbons. The mud logger, using various kinds of detection equipment, can also spot hydrocarbons in the drilling mud. An operator probably would not decide to complete or abandon a well using only information from cuttings and mud returns. Careful examination of them, however, can indicate whether the well is likely to produce.

Well logging is a widely used evaluation technique. Many kinds of logging tools are available. Some measure and record natural and induced nuclear, or radioactive, attributes of a rock. Others measure and record the way in which formations respond to electric current. Another log measures and records the speed with which sound travels through a formation. These are only a few on many logs available to operators. By interpreting the recordings, or logs, the operator can usually tell if the well will be a producer.

The operator calls the logging company to the well while the drilling crew trips out the drill string. From a portable laboratory, truck-mounted for land rigs or in a small cabin on offshore rigs, the well loggers lower logging tools into the well on wire line. They lower tools to bottom and then slowly reel them back up. When activated, the tools measure formation properties. The tools transmit the data they gather to the truck or logging shack. There, special recorders and computers store the information. For on-site evaluation, computers in the portable laboratory print the data. These logs give the operator a first look at what a formation may yield. For thorough evaluation, the portable lab can transmit the log’s data to powerful computers located at the central testing facilities. By carefully examining well logs, the operator can determine whether to complete the well. Well logs not only indicate the presence of oil and gas, they also indicate how much may be there.

During the drilling, the operator can run ‘logging while drilling’ (LWD) tools in the drill stem. These instruments incorporate sophisticated electronic devices that sense, transmit, and record formation characteristics as the bit drills ahead. The LWD tool transmits formation information on a pulse the tool creates in the drilling mud. Much as radio waves transmit sound information through air, mud pulses transmit formation information to computers on the surface. The computers analyze and display the information in readouts that experts on the site can interpret and evaluate.

Colorado Energy companies are constantly seeking out oil and testing wells before they drill. This ensures both economic return, and longevity. Heartland Energy Development Corporation evaluates domestic rock formations for oil. Heartland Energy is among the leaders in domestic oil evaluation and production.