Advice

New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joseph Martens has rejected a call to conduct an independent review of the public health impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and instead asked the New York State Health commissioner to assess DEC’s health impact analysis to determine whether to permit fracking in the state.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett heeded the advice of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) last week by proposing an impact fee, enhanced safety provisions and incentives to increase natural gas consumption, but lawmakers and third party observers expressed skepticism with the plan.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is heeding the advice of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) by proposing an impact fee, enhanced safety provisions and incentives to increase natural gas consumption.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is heeding the advice of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) by proposing an impact fee, enhanced safety provisions and incentives to increase natural gas consumption.

Citing his financial ties to the oil and natural gas industry, an attorney with a Washington, DC-based advocacy group has called on the Obama administration to replace the chairman of the subcommittee exploring the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

“Just Do It,” is what its advertisements encourage consumers to do, so Beverton, OR-based Nike Inc. followed similar advice on energy matters from California officials and has converted its cargo-hauling fleet at the Long Beach-Los Angeles Port from diesel to liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled vehicles.

In a regulatory U-4 filing last August to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a former UBS PaineWebber adviser based in Houston said he believes he was fired after he told some of his clients to sell their Enron Corp. stock. Chung Wu said in an Aug. 31, 2001 filing that he had sent an e-mail to more than 10 of his clients Aug. 21, 2001 voicing concerns about Enron’s future and advising them to sell. He was fired the same day.

Wall Street analysts told a Senate panel Wednesday that the judgments made by a majority of those covering Enron Corp. to continue recommending the stock as a “buy” through mid-November 2001 were based on publicly available information that ultimately proved to be wrong. And despite supposed conflicts of interests within the analysts’ companies — many of which were lending money to Enron at the same time their analysts were recommending buys — the analysts testified that the “Chinese Wall” maintained by research and investment units prevented their judgment from being swayed.

Wall Street analysts told a Senate panel Wednesday that the judgments made by a majority of those covering Enron Corp. to continue recommending the stock as a “buy” through mid-November 2001 were based on publicly available information that ultimately proved to be wrong. And despite supposed conflicts of interests within the analysts’ companies — many of which were lending money to Enron at the same time their analysts were recommending buys — the analysts testified that the “Chinese Wall” maintained by research and investment units prevented their judgment from being swayed.