Centerpiece

Suncor Energy Inc. is writing off $1.5 billion of the investment in the centerpiece of its $20.6 billion oilsands expansion, the Voyageur Upgrader, which would turn heavy bitumen into light oil, in part because of stunning production growth in U.S. oil shales.

Industry officials were disappointed in President Obama’s jobs speech Thursday, saying their pleas for him to make oil and natural gas the “centerpiece” of his jobs-creation effort fell largely on deaf ears.

A centerpiece of California’s precedent-setting climate change law (AB 32) was dealt a blow by a San Francisco Superior Court March 17 ruling that could require a full-blown environmental impact report (EIR) before the proposed cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be implemented. It was set to be effective next year.

A centerpiece of California’s precedent-setting climate change law (AB 32) was dealt a blow by a San Francisco Superior Court ruling released last Monday that could require a full-blown environmental impact report (EIR) before the proposed cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be implemented. It was set to be effective next year, but could have to wait until at least to 2013.

Initiating a centerpiece regulatory initiative under the newly enacted Energy Policy Act of 2005, FERC last Thursday proposed criteria for the establishment of an electric reliability organization (ERO) that will enforce reliability standards under the regulatory review and oversight of the Commission.