Rich Nemec

A utility consumer watchdog group won a partial victory Monday in its attempt to hold up an ongoing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and storage rate case until the utility turns over more of the emails it has revealed over the past four weeks showing communications violations with state regulators, some of which were centered on the gas case.

Two Houston-based companies said Monday they have agreed to cooperate on the design of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker fuel network for the U.S. Gulf Coast region. LNG America and Buffalo Marine Service Inc. have agreed to collaborate on applications for the high horsepower marine market.

Two recognized names in the natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling industry — Nebraska-based Hexagon Lincoln and California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. — made moves in recent days to beef up technology in compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling.

At the start of next year, California will try to do something that to date has not been done anywhere: include gasoline and diesel fuel sales under its ongoing cap-and-trade emissions trading program that currently only involves power plants, refineries and large industrial complexes. A report released Thursday raises questions about the viability of the effort.

Seeking to improve its financial and competitive positions, Denver-based QEP Resources unit QEP Field Services is selling its natural gas-rich midstream assets to Tesoro Logistic LP (TLLP) in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.5 billion.

Driven by Colorado’s Clean Air/Clean Jobs Act (see Daily GPI, April 20, 2010) prompting the closing of older coal-fired power plants, Xcel Energy Inc. said Thursday it has completed a $110 million 34-mile, 24-inch diameter natural gas pipeline to serve a still-to-be-completed gas-fired generation plant.

More than a year after becoming the only local jurisdiction in New Mexico to ban all oil and natural gas activity, Mora County’s three-member elected commission voted last Tuesday against repealing the ban it passed in April 2013. However, an industry representative predicts that the ban will be repealed next year.

A second California regulator mixed up in the email communications violations tied to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has excused himself from a pending review of two regulatory judges’ proposed $1.4 billion in penalties for PG&E’s negligence in a fatal natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion four years ago.

Newport Beach, CA-based natural gas transportation fuel provider Clean Energy Fuels Corp. on Tuesday closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in privately-held NG Advantage, and delivered, for the first time, more than 50 million compressed natural gas (CNG) gallons in the last quarter.