Allegations

Gasco Energy Inc. has agreed to pay $350,000 and provide for air pollution controls at its facilities in the Uinta Basin to settle allegations that it violated the Clean Air Act at a compressor station in Utah, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said. The company disclosed the violations voluntarily.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) has set for hearing a complaint by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against Range Resources Corp. alleging methane contamination of residential water wells in Parker County in the Barnett Shale play (see Shale Daily, Dec. 9). The hearing date is to be Jan. 10. “Because this matter has now been set for hearing, and the commission will sit in judgment of the facts, the commissioners cannot comment on the case,” said RRC General Counsel Lindil Fowler. “However, RRC staff expects both parties, the EPA as well as Range Resources representatives, to appear before hearings examiners and testify as to the allegations…”

FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Curtis L. Wagner Jr. issued two orders Monday that lay the groundwork for Natural Gas Act Section 5 proceedings into allegations that Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC and Ozark Gas Transmission LLC over-recovered their cost of service in 2008 and 2009, potentially resulting in unjust and unreasonable rates for shippers.

Responding to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.’s “public relations” announcement a day earlier, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Hanger on Wednesday said he would continue to hold the company responsible for groundwater contamination in Dimock Township, PA.

Two House Republicans have called on the Interior Department’s Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall to open an investigation into allegations that the Obama administration altered peer-reviewed recommendations by experts in a report to justify the 60-day moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Two Republicans on a House panel have called on the Interior Department’s Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall to open an investigation into allegations that the Obama administration altered peer-reviewed recommendations by experts in a report to justify the 60-day moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sempra Energy’s $875 million, 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in North Baja California, Mexico, continued operations Thursday despite an adverse Mexican federal district court action earlier in June that has caused the plaintiff — a former adjacent landowner — to cry foul, accusing the San Diego-based U.S. energy holding company of violating regulations governing the LNG facility’s operations.

Northern Natural Gas last week disputed allegations that it restricted access to receipt point capacity at a proposed interconnection between the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) and Northern Natural systems to shippers who agreed to buy a “phantom backhaul service.”

Northern Natural Gas disputed allegations that it restricted access to receipt point capacity at a proposed interconnection between the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) and Northern Natural systems to shippers who agreed to buy a “phantom backhaul service.”