Rich Nemec

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) natural gas system received some positive feedback from federal and state regulators Monday, including the approval to boost the operating pressure on a controversial 3.8-mile transmission pipeline lateral on the San Francisco Peninsula south of the city.

North American efforts to use more natural gas for transportation got a boost Tuesday on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border with announcements of separate joint venture projects.

California regulators have approved Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) plans to enhance the state’s largest underground storage facility, with a $200.9 million project that was originally outlined nearly five years ago (see Daily GPI, May 29). It is part of a larger storage expansion by the nation’s largest gas distributor.

Seismic activity has picked up again this fall in North Dakota in areas outside the Bakken-Three Forks plays, according to the Lynn Helms, director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

The City of Broomfield, CO, on Thursday became the fourth municipality in the state this month to have voters pass a ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The results, delayed since the Nov. 5 ballot, showed a 17-vote margin for the five-year ban.

In collaboration with industry and conservation groups, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday unveiled plans for his state to become the first in the nation to propose regulations to detect and reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.

Dipping into a regulatory body’s bread and butter, California regulators on Thursday voted unanimously to re-tool the state’s general rate case process to make public safety determinations about the utility infrastructure they oversee. The specter of the fatal 2010 San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline failure and its aftermath were cited as drivers for the new statewide examination.

Colorado’s record-setting floods in September did not seriously impact oil and natural gas production in the state, nor result in any environmental disasters, although crude oil production took more of a hit than gas operations, according to a report from the Colorado Oil/Gas Association (COGA).

California regulators on Friday launched a formal rulemaking process to ready implementation of unconventional drilling rules following mandates from state law (SB 4) to begin January 2015 (see Shale Daily, Sept. 23). Interim “emergency” rules will be in effect next year.