Authority

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the deadline from April 30 until Nov. 15 for the public to submit data and scientific literature as part of the agency’s study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water sources.

House Republicans last Tuesday called for greater access to oil and natural gas resources on public lands, restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority over the energy industry and for Congress to revisit flawed financial reform regulations in the Dodd-Frank law.

The policy landscape of shale gas development has been “dominated” by contradictory opinions, but there are “pathways” to a consensus, according to an analysis by Resources for the Future (RFF).

House Republicans Tuesday called for greater access to oil and natural gas resources on public lands, restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority over the energy industry and for Congress to revisit flawed financial reform regulations in the Dodd-Frank Law.

Idaho regulators last Friday gave Intermountain Gas Co. emergency authority to sell up to 100,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Nampa, ID, liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility to aid residents at nearby West Yellowstone, MT, where LNG shortages are anticipated due to a power outage that could leave residents without heating fuel, a spokesperson for the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) said. West Yellowstone’s natural gas supplier, Energy West, notified Intermountain last Thursday that its chief supplier had been shut down because of a power outage in southwest Wyoming. The power outage, combined with a cold snap, left Energy West in a tough position for finding alternative LNG sources, the PUC spokesperson said. Intermountain, which isn’t authorized to sell LNG, said it had adequate LNG supplies in storage, and Energy West has a truck-trailer it can use to transport the emergency fuel. Charges for the emergency supplies will be determined after Intermountain files an LNG tariff schedule with the PUC.

TransCanada Corp. has signed a contract with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to develop, own and operate a 900 MW gas-fired power plant at OPA’s Lennox Generating Station on Lake Ontario’s northern shore. The plant is expected to be in service by the first quarter of 2017.

A Senate bill offered by Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia and Republicans’ Susan Collins and Rob Portman could undermine the authority of independent agencies, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to implement many of the regulations under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

An attorney representing a Pennsylvania township that is challenging Act 13, the omnibus Marcellus Shale law, said the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) has no authority to review local drilling ordinances, and accused the agency of acting with “malicious intent” by doing so.

High Prairie Pipeline LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Durango, CO-based Saddle Butte Pipeline LLC, expects FERC to act soon on its complaint that Enbridge Energy Ltd. has discriminated against it by denying it an interconnection to deliver oil from the Bakken Shale formation to the market hub at Clearbrook MN, a spokesman said Tuesday (see Shale Daily, June 4).