Charging

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last Thursday filed an enforcement action charging New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex), a unit of CME Group, and two former CME Nymex employees, William Byrnes and Christopher Curtin, with violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations through the repeated disclosures of nonpublic material customer information over a two-and-a-half-year period to an outside commodity broker. CME Group fired back that not only did it address and handle the issue appropriately, the complaint against Nymex is “neither justified as a matter of law nor consistent with the regulatory structure” established by the CEA.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday filed an enforcement action charging New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex), a unit of CME Group, and two former CME Nymex employees, William Byrnes and Christopher Curtin, with violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations through the repeated disclosures of nonpublic material customer information over a period of two and a half years to an outside commodity broker. CME Group fired back that not only did it address and handle the issue appropriately, the complaint against Nymex is “neither justified as a matter of law nor consistent with the regulatory structure” established by the CEA.

Washington state regulators fined Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) $430,000 for improperly charging natural gas and electric utility residential customers for disconnecting their service. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved a multi-party settlement agreement that alleged 1,639 violations by the combination utility of the state’s consumer protection rules. In addition, PSE now has refunded disconnect-visit fees it charged more than 9,000 customers, dating back to December 2009. PSE also has agreed to change its policy regarding the disconnection visits, the UTC said.

Record natural gas use by U.S. utilities is tightening supply/demand balances sooner than the market was expecting, setting the stage for natural gas bulls to come charging back, according to BNP Paribas.

Record natural gas use by U.S. utilities is tightening supply/demand balances sooner than the market was expecting, setting the stage for natural gas bulls to come charging back, according to BNP Paribas.

Pennsylvania is on its way to officially charging a fee for Marcellus Shale drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950 last Monday, giving shale gas-rich counties in the state the ability to impose a 15-year impact fee on unconventional gas wells; now it’s up to the locals.

Pennsylvania is on its way to officially charging a fee for Marcellus Shale drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950 on Monday evening, giving shale gas-rich counties in the state the ability to impose a 15-year impact fee on unconventional gas wells; now it’s up to the locals.

Pennsylvania is on its way to officially charging a fee for Marcellus Shale drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950 on Monday evening, giving shale gas-rich counties in the state the ability to impose a 15-year impact fee on unconventional gas wells; now it’s up to the locals.

The near-record pace of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season already has the 15th named storm of the year charging across the Atlantic Ocean, and another six named storms are likely to form before the season’s official end on Nov. 30, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based WSI. Corp.