The LaSalle Pipeline — DCP Midstream LP‘s project to transport natural gas from the Niobrara Shale in the Denver-Julesburg Basin to markets in Colorado and neighboring areas — has been issued a favorable environmental assessment by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. DCP proposes to construct and operate 11.3 miles of 12-inch diameter gas pipeline from its newly constructed LaSalle Gas Plant in Weld County to a proposed interconnect with the Colorado Interstate pipeline. The line would carry up to 230 MMcf/d. The company expects to begin construction on the project by November for completion by March 2013.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently published a notice requiring all unconventional natural gas operators to provide detailed information about their 2011 air emissions by March 1. The DEP is in the process of cataloging air emissions information from all sources — industrial, commercial and natural — as part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inventory compiled every three years (see Shale Daily, Dec. 12, 2011). The DEP previously sent requests to 99 companies along the natural gas supply chain, but the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council said many major operators weren’t sent the request and therefore aren’t required to provide the information (see Shale Daily, Jan. 9).