Cases

Acting FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said her top regulatory priorities remain unchanged despite the Commission’s lack of a quorum. But in the interim the health of wholesale competitive markets needs to be addressed and pipeline foes need to find a more appropriate venue to express their views, she said.

Still reeling from the fallout surrounding the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP late Friday received a mixed bag of news from an appellate court. The energy giant learned it would be able to appeal some claims related to the disaster, while others will remain out of reach.

Still reeling from the fallout surrounding the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP late Friday received a mixed bag of news from an appellate court. The energy giant learned it would be able to appeal some claims related to the disaster, while others will remain out of reach.

A judge in New York State dismissed two lawsuits filed against Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials over the ongoing regulatory delay for considering high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), on the grounds that the plaintiffs in both cases do not have proper legal standing.

Although the layman’s common perception is that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is environmentally harmful, threatening water supplies around the nation, at least three states with robust fossil fuel production — Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming — don’t have much data to support the perceptions.

A federal judge last Monday certified five separate class action cases against EQT Corp. and Consol Energy Corp. that could potentially add up to 15,000 plaintiffs in Southwest Virginia alleging that the companies cheated them out of millions of dollars in royalty payments (seeDaily GPI,Sept. 18). In dispute are past payments for coalbed methane (CBM) gas production in the far western corner of the state dating back 23 years.

Settlement talks have broken down for regulatory cases involving the 2010 San Bruno, CA, natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) now expects to litigate the issues at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), according to PG&E Corp. CEO Tony Earley.

Talks for the settlement of outstanding state regulatory cases relating to the 2010 San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion have broken down, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) now expects to litigate the issues at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), said PG&E Corp. CEO Tony Earley.

In some cases operators just aren’t drilling and in others they are leaving the state for greener pastures as 2012 continued to be another year for declining natural gas production in Northwest New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, according to the latest state statistics that showed the region produced 780 Bcf last year.