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The news preceded President Obama’s call last week for more action to address climate change, but executives at NRG Energy Inc. and Tenaska Inc. may have been reading between the lines after announcing over the past two weeks that because of abundant U.S. natural gas, coal is going to play a much smaller role in their generating schemes going forward.

The news preceded President Obama’s call on Tuesday for more action to address climate change (see Daily GPI, June 26), but executives at NRG Energy Inc. and Tenaska Inc. may have been reading between the lines after announcing within the past few days that because of abundant U.S. natural gas, coal is going to play a much smaller role in their generating schemes going forward.

Even as an administrative process is ongoing to hammer out new state rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) by oil/gas regulators, the California Senate on Thursday passed on a 27-11 vote a measure (SB 4) to cover chemical disclosure requirements and public notice before fracking can take place. It drew short, at the industry’s urging, of placing any moratorium on the practice for an interim period.

With natural gas prices increasing, a joint venture (JV) in the Marcellus Shale has announced plans to build a dry gas pipeline across two neighboring counties in north-central West Virginia.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Wednesday he will continue to take legal action against cities and counties that insist on passing bans on the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Cash prices overall lurched higher Wednesday as weather forecasts continued to call for bone-chilling winds across major Midwest and eastern market centers. Without the multi-dollar gains posted at a handful of Northeast points, the average national gain was 8 cents, but with those gains factored in, the average rose to 21 cents.

Gulfport Energy Corp., which released its 4Q2012 and full-year operations results on Wednesday, reported strong natural gas growth in the onshore, with falling oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) output.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. has signed an agreement with Sinochem Petroleum USA LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of China’s Sinochem Group, to sell 40% of its interest in 207,000 net acres leased by the Pioneer in the horizontal Wolfcamp Shale in the southern portion of the Spraberry Trend Area Field for $1.7 billion.

Seneca Resources Corp., the exploration and production subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Co., said Tuesday that six recently completed wells targeting the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania are among the most productive ever drilled in the play, according to initial test results.