Atlantic

Despite a fading El Nino and the possibility of La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean, the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season isn’t likely to produce an unusual number of tropical storms, according to forecasters at Colorado State University (CSU).

An area of colder-than-normal ocean water east of Newfoundland could throw a curve ball into the forecast, but AccuWeather forecasters believe the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season could be more active than usual, with a total of 14 named storms, eight of them hurricanes, including four major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).

Fifteen months after the federal government considered adding — for the first time — areas of the Atlantic Ocean to its five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program, the Obama administration on Tuesday removed the areas from consideration, citing criticism from coastal communities and the military.

FERC has agreed with the decision of an administrative law judge (ALJ) and rejected a motion filed by Liberty Utilities (Pipeline and Transmission) Corp. and Algonquin Tinker Generation Co. that would have stalled a proposed rate increase by Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC’s (M&NE).

Officials with Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC (ACP) said Friday that they have developed an alternative route through the Monongahela and George Washington national forests in Virginia and West Virginia after their previous route was rejected by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

The El Nino event that has been helping to dull the worst of the U.S. winter weather won’t dissipate for several more months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), potentially bad news for anyone hoping for higher natural gas prices.

FERC should weigh Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC’s (Transco) Virginia Southside Expansion Project II and its Atlantic Sunrise Project simultaneously as they both involve work at the same existing compressor station in Virginia, environmentalists told the Commission in a motion to intervene out of time.

Regulators in Massachusetts have asked FERC to conduct an environmental review of Spectra Energy Corp.’s Atlantic Bridge Project, arguing that the cumulative impacts of the project — especially from a new compressor station to be built in Weymouth, MA — warrant such a review.

The Obama administration’s proposal to allow limited offshore natural gas and oil drilling in the Mid- and South Atlantic area, now under fire by some coastal communities and legislators, is facing more scrutiny after a study challenged industry claims that drilling would be a boon to the region.