Appealed

Elected officials in the Town of Chenango, NY, voted unanimously on Wednesday to schedule a public hearing over whether to enact a one-year moratorium on oil and natural gas activities, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Lenape Resources Inc., an oil and natural gas producer based in New York, is threatening to sue the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) if the agency doesn’t advise three towns in Livingston County that they don’t have the authority to enact local drilling bans.

The backer of an initiative to raise the severance tax Arkansas charges natural gas producers has appealed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to scrutinize two energy producers for their indirect funding of anti-tax hike groups and what those groups are telling voters.

The backer of an initiative to raise the severance tax Arkansas charges natural gas producers has appealed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to scrutinize two energy producers for their indirect funding of anti-tax hike groups and what those groups are telling voters.

Banking on the possibility that New York will lift its moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the near future, Norse Energy Corp. ASA on Thursday completed a $37 million sale of operated production and other assets in the Empire State to EmKey Resources LLC (see Shale Daily, March 19), giving it cash to focus on core properties in the Marcellus and Utica shales in central New York.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is becoming safer in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, thanks at least in part to the state’s regulation of the practice, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo’s (UB) Shale Resources and Society Institute.

Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to review his convictions. Before Enron fell into bankruptcy in late 2001, Skilling had at various times been COO, president and CEO of the company. A jury in 2006 found Skilling guilty on one count of conspiracy (a joint count with Chairman Kenneth Lay), 12 counts of securities fraud, one count of insider trading and five counts of making false statements to auditors and Enron shareholders (see NGI, May 29, 2006). He was acquitted on nine counts of insider trading. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans in January upheld all of Skilling’s 19 convictions, and a month later the full circuit court rejected a request for rehearing (see NGI, Feb. 16). The appeals court, however, ordered that Skilling be resentenced, which could reduce his prison term of 24 years and four months. The resentencing has not been completed, and until then Skilling is serving his sentence in a federal prison in Minnesota. The New Orleans appeals court said four months ago that Skilling had “failed to demonstrate that the government’s case rested on an incorrect theory of law or that any reversible errors infected his trial.” In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the defense team argues that under a federal fraud statute, prosecutors failed to show that Skilling wanted to advance his interests rather than those of Enron. The defense also contends that pretrial publicity prejudiced the jury and led to an unfair trial. The trial was held in Houston where Enron was headquartered. The Supreme Court could decide to hear or not hear the case before the court’s term is completed this summer.

Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Monday appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to review his convictions.

The state of Washington’s Ecology Department Friday appealed FERC’s approval in September of NorthernStar Energy’s proposed Bradwood liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along the Columbia River in Oregon. The rehearing request is procedural related to Washington’s interest in part of a connecting gas transmission pipeline that would run through a portion of the state.