Amendment

Shortly before passing a bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for the next five years, House lawmakers, along mostly partisan lines, agreed Thursday to a controversial amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that makes optional any federal position limits on commodity market derivatives.

Rather than quibble about valid signatures for two anti-oil/natural gas measures (Initiatives 75 and 78) they were unsuccessful in getting on the Colorado statewide ballot this November, activist groups have turned their attention to opposing a measure that made it to the ballot (Initiative 71) seeking to limit state constitutional amendments through the ballot measure process.

The Pennsylvania House on Wednesday struck down by a wide margin Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to enact a 3.5% severance tax on unconventional natural gas production, a move that could effectively end the proposal.

In a move lawmakers hope will streamline the pipeline permitting process and provide additional natural gas to the East Coast, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed a bill Thursday granting the secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) the power to negotiate rights-of-way for gas pipelines through national park lands.

In a move lawmakers hope will streamline the pipeline permitting process and provide additional natural gas to the East Coast, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed a bill Thursday granting the secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) the power to negotiate rights-of-way for gas pipelines through national park lands.

At midday Friday, after three hours of debate, Texas state Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) had fought back 10 amendments to his House Bill 40, which is intended to prevent municipalities from enacting ordinances that interfere with oil/gas drilling. HB 40 was passed to engrossment on a vote of 122-18 and faces one more vote in the House before passing to the state Senate.

At midday Friday, after three hours of debate, Texas state Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) had fought back 10 amendments to his House Bill 40, which is intended to prevent municipalities from enacting ordinances that interfere with oil/gas drilling. HB 40 was passed to engrossment on a vote of 122-18 and faces one more vote in the House before passing to the state Senate.

A proposal that could allow more natural gas and oil development across 1.7 million acres of Colorado’s Piceance Basin for the next 20 years was unveiled Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The agency said the proposal could yield more than 7.5 Tcf of natural gas over the period.

A 16-word amendment to the Keystone XL bill recognizing that climate change is real but not specifying a cause passed with nearly unanimous support in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. But five other amendments, including two that put the blame for climate change squarely on “human activities,” foundered.