Christine

The Alberta Energy Ministry said it has sold a record C$2.68 billion in drilling rights so far this year, eclipsing the previous record of C$2.39 billion set in 2010.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last Thursday signed into law part of a bill (HB 1634) that expands the state regulatory commission’s authority over pipeline safety in the state. Gregoire rejected a section of the legislation that would have exempted from the new law certain “consumer-owned” utilities, such as electric cooperatives, municipal utilities and public utility districts. The governor characterized the new law as including “a comprehensive damage prevention program for underground utilities.” A spokesperson with the Washington Utilitites and Transportation Commission (UTC) confirmed that the new statute will require anyone doing excavation work to subscribe to a one-number underground utility locator service and to report damage done to underground utility infrastructure to the UTC. The new law is to be effective Jan. 1, 2013. Both the head of the UTC and the Northwest Gas Association praised the new law as something both entities had been working on with state lawmakers for more than two years.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is concerned that FERC’s approval last month of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the Columbia River in Oregon was premature, given that her state has not made a final determination on its portion of a pipeline planned to link the LNG terminal to existing interstate pipelines.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is concerned that FERC’s approval last month of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the Columbia River in Oregon was premature, given that her state has not made a final determination on its portion of a pipeline planned to link the LNG terminal to existing interstate pipelines.

Vowing to reduce her state’s carbon footprint, a refrain ringing throughout the West these days, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire May 4 signed a new climate change law (SB 6001). The new statute sets enforceable limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric generation plants, and it is expected to boost the development of natural gas-fired and renewable energy generation. Power plant fuel restrictions kick in next summer.

Vowing to reduce her state’s carbon footprint, a refrain ringing throughout the West these days, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last Friday signed a new climate change law (SB 6001). The new statute sets enforceable limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric generation plants, and it is expected to boost the development of natural gas-fired and renewable energy generation.

While there will be “a lot of noise” on Capitol Hill in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, energy analyst Christine Tezak doubts there will be “substantive legislation” adopted to change the way domestic energy markets operate.

Christine Tezak, an analyst with Stanford Washington Research Group, last Wednesday dropped her odds for multi-emissions legislation backed by the Bush Administration being enacted into law this year to roughly 1 in 10 after the measure (S. 131) deadlocked in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on a bipartisan vote of 9 to 9.

After winning by the barest of margins in an election that was disputed for weeks, Washington state’s new Gov. Christine Gregoire earlier this month shook up the three-member state Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) by appointing two new commissioners, including a new chairperson, to six-year terms. The move pushes the current UTC chairperson, Marilyn Showalter, out of the job she has held for the past four years.