Also

Energy Transfer Partners LP, the former partner with Enterprise Products Partners LP in a proposed oil pipeline from Cushing, OK, to Houston, is suing Enterprise and its new partner in a similar project, Enbridge Inc.

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) has launched a campaign to prevent Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania’s state parks. The campaign was unveiled by John H. Quigley, a special adviser to PennFuture and former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

Natural gas utility rates in Nevada have dropped again, marking a 30% decrease since January 2009. Electric rates also decreased, and NV Energy attributed both retail utility rate drops to a combination of factors, with lower wholesale natural gas costs being a major one. With a 10.72% decrease in retail gas rates for its northern Nevada customers, the utility said the average monthly gas bill for residential customers will be more than $22 less than it was in 2009. “Adding today’s decreases will roll back total natural gas prices to 2001 levels and total electric utility prices to 2004,” NV Energy said. Factors driving the downward trend besides lower wholesale gas prices are a new state-of-art combined-cycle gas-fired generation plant, a broader, more gas-fired utility owned generation fleet and a decline in energy costs generally.

Ten years on, drilling in the Barnett Shale has expanded the economy of the 24-county region in North Texas by 38%, according to a new study that said cumulative economic benefits of the Barnett from 2001 to 2011 include $65.4 billion in gross product for the region and $80.7 billion for the state.

Tennessee lifted a systemwide Imbalance Warning Saturday. The pipeline also rescheduled a line abandonment project for the 523M-7300 and 523M-7600 lines offshore Louisiana to Wednesday through Oct. 4. The work, which will require suspension of flows at four Vermilion meters, previously was set for last Saturday through Oct. 2.

SandRidge Energy will transfer a 13.2% interest in its Mississippian Lime play acreage in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas to an affiliate of South Korean investment firm Atinum Partners Co. for $500 million, the Oklahoma City-based company said.

Although all of its businesses were affected by historic flooding in the second quarter, Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources Group Inc. saw its production in the Bakken Shale play in its home state jump 10% as part of quarter-over-quarter results that were down slightly.

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, also known as PennFuture, has filed a lawsuit against an Ultra Petroleum subsidiary, alleging that some of the company’s facilities in the Marcellus Shale violate the federal Clean Air Act and state regulations.

Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy (LDH) has appointed William C. Reed II as co-chairman of its board of directors following the resignation of Jacques Veyrat. Reed is also CEO and president of LDH. Highbridge Capital Management co-founder Glenn Dubin will continue as co-chairman of LDH, the company said. In addition, Christopher Caperton, managing director and general counsel of the Louis Dreyfus Group, has been appointed to the LDH board of directors. Stamford, CT-based LDH is the merchant energy joint venture of the Louis Dreyfus Group and of the multi-strategy hedge fund of Highbridge Capital Management.