Agency

Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner (CFTC) Jill Sommers, one of two Republicans at the agency, informed President Obama that she plans to resign at the end of March, more than a year before her current term ends. Sommers, who has not indicated what she may do once she leaves the CFTC, said she wants to remain at the Commission until it approves the last group of Dodd-Frank rules to reform the derivatives market. She and Commissioner Scott O’Malia, the only other Republican, often joined forces to oppose proposals supported by the majority. Sommers joined the CFTC in August 2007 for a term that expired in April 2009. She was renominated by Obama to serve a second term, which is scheduled to end in 2014. “Jill has worked to bring common-sense swaps market reforms to life and to safeguard the integrity of the futures market. [She] has been essential to these…efforts. I wish [her] well in all of her future pursuits,” said CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. Sommers has worked in the commodity futures and options industry throughout her career. In 2005, she was the policy director and head of government affairs for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and prior to that she worked in the government affairs office of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), helping to draft the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Since the five-member Commission is limited to three members from a single party and the it currently has three Democrats, Sommers’ successor would have to be a Republican or from another party.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Omnitek Engineering Corp.’s application for diesel-to-natural gas conversion technology for Navistar’s heavy-duty DT466E and DT530E engines.

The multi-year review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the potential risks on public drinking water sources from hydraulically fracturing (fracking) natural gas wells includes case studies in five unconventional drilling areas around the country in the Marcellus, Barnett and Bakken shales, as well as the Raton Basin.

The multi-year review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the potential risks on public drinking water sources from hydraulically fracturing (fracking) natural gas wells includes case studies in five unconventional drilling areas around the country.

Colorado producers on Friday raised the ante in their concerns about a state agency’s efforts to establish new rules on setbacks for oil and natural gas drilling operators, gaining support from local business groups for a fact sheet citing the economic benefits that resource production brings to the state.

Colorado producers on Friday raised the ante in their concerns about a state agency’s efforts to establish new rules on setbacks for oil and natural gas drilling operators, gaining support from local business groups for a fact sheet citing the economic benefits that resource production brings to the state.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled a Clean Water Act (CWA) case for wetlands violations, requiring PDC Mountaineer (PDCM) to pay a penalty of $177,500 to resolve violations involving construction activities at Marcellus Shale gas extraction facilities in northern West Virginia. According to EPA, Bridgeport, WV-based PDCM failed to apply for necessary permits to discharge fill materials into wetlands or streams in Harrison County, WV. PDCM, which also agreed to restore and/or complete mitigation projects at four sites in the state pursuant to separate CWA orders, did not admit to violating the CWA. Earlier this month, PDC Energy reported that PDCM, a joint venture of PDC and Lime Rock Partners V LP, completed three horizontal Marcellus wells since mid-September. The wells were expected to be turned-in-line by year’s end, once a permit for a gathering line river crossing is received, PDC said.

The “extraordinary growth in oil and natural gas output in the United States will mean a sea-change in global energy flows,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week in its flagship World Energy Outlook (WEO) for 2012.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer took aim at a state lawmaker for accusing his agency of wrongdoing when it tested water supplies allegedly tainted by natural gas drilling.