Energy

 

• Texas to get new type of refinery: a lithium refinery

  Tesla is developing the facility near Corpus Christi to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, a lithium chemical used in the high-performance lithium-ion batteries that companies such as Tesla prefer.

  March 10, 2023

• Permian Basin Economic Indicators

  Permian Basin-area employment grew in 2022. Oil production reached a new high, and the rig count increased. However, home sales slowed and median home prices declined slightly during the fourth quarter.

  March 01, 2023

• Trade diversion has helped ease the impact of the embargo on Russian oil

  Much has been made about the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the price of oil. However, the price of oil was already drifting upward well before the invasion in late February 2022.

  February 21, 2023

• Energy Indicators

  Energy prices have been dropping since summer as softening economic data and warmer-than-normal weather lowered demand expectations.

  February 16, 2023

• Residential solar power shines on, backed by securitized lending

  Residential solar is a small and rapidly expanding sector, and the securitization market—the packaging of loans to investors—has been one of the most popular sources of funding for new solar installations.

  February 14, 2023

• Energy Indicators

  Energy prices have been dropping since summer as softening economic data and warmer-than-normal weather lowered demand expectations.

  January 19, 2023

• Texas electrical grid remains vulnerable to extreme weather events

  New regulations, weatherization standards and operational changes have addressed many shortcomings, but some critical gaps persist.

  January 17, 2023

• Research Department Working Papers

  Heterogeneity in the Pass-Through from Oil to Gasoline Prices: A New Instrument for Estimating the Price Elasticity of Gasoline Demand

  This paper proposes a new instrument for estimating the price elasticity of gasoline demand that exploits systematic differences across U.S. states in the pass-through of oil price shocks to retail gasoline prices.

  January 06, 2023

• Southwest Economy, Fourth Quarter 2022

  Spotlight: Blame costlier natural gas, rising fees for increasing Texas power bills

  The cost of keeping the lights on in Texas homes has soared this year, as natural gas prices attained highs not seen since 2008.

  December 22, 2022

• Research Department Working Papers

  A Broader Perspective on the Inflationary Effects of Energy Price Shocks

  This paper develops a vector autoregressive model that quantifies the joint impact of shocks to several energy prices on headline and core CPI inflation.

  December 21, 2022