Comment

A West Virginia city in the Marcellus Shale has enacted a 6% business and occupation (B&O) tax on natural gas companies operating within the city limits, reportedly to raise revenue to fix roads and bridges that could be damaged by drilling there.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued for public comment a proposed decision by an administrative law judge (ALJ) and an alternate proposed decision by Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon regarding requests by San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Gas Co. to recover from ratepayers costs related to wildfires that affect their operations. The ALJ’s proposal rejects the utilities’ requests, finding that the companies haven’t proven that the proposed rates would be just and reasonable. Simon’s alternate proposal partially approves the utilities’ requests by limiting the wildfire costs to 90% of uninsured payments that are more than $10 million per wildfire and imposing restrictions on the recoveries. “As assigned commissioner to this state’s fire safety proceedings, I harbor grave concerns regarding the liability risk surrounding critical energy system infrastructure in this fire-prone region of our great state,” said Simon. Comments on the proceeding, No. A.09-08-020, are due by Nov. 5; reply comments are due by Nov. 13. CPUC could vote on the proposals as soon as Nov. 29. For information contact the CPUC Public Advisor’s Office at (415) 703-2074, (866) 849-8390 or e-mail public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov.

John Pinkerton, executive chairman of Range Resources Corp., said his company’s decision in 2010 to be the first to voluntarily disclose the contents of the chemicals it uses in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) was the right call, and one that now has received nearly unanimous industry support.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said there was a better than 50% chance that a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc will build an ethane cracker in Beaver County, and he said more work is necessary to make the facility a reality.

Landowner groups in Ohio say they are battling it out with Chesapeake Energy Corp., the largest leaseholder in the Utica Shale, over the company’s attempts to renegotiate leases to expand acreage and increase the size of drilling units.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) is the second largest natural gas producer and one of the largest leaseholders in the United States but its various financial deals have damaged the net asset value (NAV) of its portfolio, according to ITG Investment Research.

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has completed its first multi-asset transaction with Chesapeake Energy Corp. to acquire the profitable midstream businesses, closing Monday on the $2 billion acquisition of Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP (CHKM).

The backer of an initiative to raise the severance tax Arkansas charges natural gas producers has appealed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to scrutinize two energy producers for their indirect funding of anti-tax hike groups and what those groups are telling voters.

Inspectors with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) found methane gas in three residential water wells and two streams in Bradford County. DEP has launched an investigation to determine the source.