Daily Archives: September 29, 2005

Market responds to Rita-related damage to Gulf production facilities

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chevron rig.jpgFollowing on this post from yesterday, Chevron Corp.’s announcement that its Typhoon tension leg platform was severed from its moorings by Hurricane Rita and is floating upside down in the Gulf of Mexico dovetailed with the news that natural-gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange skyrocketed 10% to almost $14 per million British thermal units, which is its highest closing on record.
Typhoon2.jpgThus, if it’s going to be a long, cold winter in the U.S. hinterlands this winter, then it’s looking increasingly as if it’s going to be a long, cold, expensive winter.
Natural-gas futures on the Nymex for delivery in October rose $1.251 to $13.907 per million BTUs. The expiration of the October contract at the same time that the delivery point for Nymex futures, Louisiana’s Henry Hub, which has been closed down for the past week, added to the uncertainty and volatility in the market.

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Paul Burka on the Houston evacuation plan

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evacuation5.jpgFollowing on previous posts here and here regarding Houston’s hurricane evacuation plan, Texas Monthly editor and former Houstonian Paul Burka weighs in on the plan in this OpinionJournal op-ed. Mr. Burka does not offer anything new here in terms of a solution, but he does do a good job of framing the key issue:

There is no way that government can assure that the people on the roads are the ones who are in the most danger, those from Galveston and the low-lying areas near Galveston Bay. Common sense needs to be restored to the evacuation process, so that people with the greatest risk of danger will make the decision to leave, and those with the least risk will stay off the roads.

Tory Gattis over at Houston Strategies also has some good thoughts on how to improve the plan.

A key tip for dealing with rattlesnakes

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rattler.jpgOne of the best parts of the Houston Chronicle for many years has been the newspaper’s Hunting and Outdoors section of its sports section. Inasmuch as my reaction to finding a rattlesnake would have been the same as the fellow’s reaction as described in the following Chronicle article, I was glad to learn something from the Chronicle piece about dealing with dead rattlesnakes:

Even a dead rattlesnake can hurt you. Just ask Trey Hanover of College Station.
On Labor Day weekend, Hanover and his father, Tommy Hanover, were working on their deer lease when they killed a big rattler. They shot the snake’s head off with a shotgun and loaded the carcass in the truck to show other hunters on their lease that they needed to be careful.

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Stros close in on another playoff berth

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stros logo6.jpgAfter a 6-3 road trip that included a two–game sweep of the Cardinals, the Stros (87-71) come home for four games with the Cubs (77-81) needing any combination of wins or Phillies (85-74) losses equaling two to achieve the club’s sixth playoff berth in the past nine seasons (the Phillies finish the season with three games in Washington against the 81-78 Nationals). Inasmuch as the Stros have gone a positively unbelievable 72-41 after a miserable 15-30 start to the season, one has to feel good about the Stros’ chances of clinching the playoff berth at this point. However, given this club’s chronic lack of hitting, it is reasonable to hold off celebrating until the final out of the clinching game is officially in the scorebook.

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The Hammer’s indictment

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DeLay6.jpgIn one of the least surprising developments in Texas politics over the past couple of years, a Travis County (Austin area) grand jury on Wednesday charged Houston Congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two political associates — John Colyandro, former executive director of the Texas political action committee that Mr. DeLay helped form, and Jim Ellis, who heads Mr. DeLay’s national political action committee — with criminal conspiracy in an alleged campaign finance scheme that has been under investigation for almost two years. That investigation and Mr. DeLay have been frequent topics on this blog, as posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here reflect. Here is a copy of the indictment.

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