Using Germany as an example, this article investigates the changing utility business model in the face of rapidly expanding renewable energy sources and other trends that are eating into utility company bottom lines. “A reckoning is at hand, and nowhere is that clearer than in Germany. Even as the country sets records nearly every month for renewable power production, the changes have devastated its utility companies, whose profits from power generation have collapsed.” [New York Times]

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on several energy-related bills this week meant to send a message to the Senate and Obama Administration. Legislators will vote on numerous issues from the Keystone XL pipeline to oil & gas drilling and natural gas exports. “That is why we will send to the Senate a single, common-sense energy plan comprised of House-passed bills focusing on production, infrastructure, reliability and efficiency,” he [House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)] wrote. [The Hill]

Analysts including Citi’s Ed Morse have been predicting oil prices to decline to around $85 per barrel for the past several months. And now global benchmark crude oil prices appear to be heading in that direction. Weak OECD economic predictions released today are likely to put further downward pressure on oil prices. “Brent for October settlement, which expires today, fell as much as 90 cents to $96.21 a barrel, the lowest since July 2, 2012, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange…WTI for October delivery dropped as much as $1.64 to $90.63 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month futures are set for the lowest close since May 2013.” [Bloomberg]