Committee

In the story, “Report Recommends States Encourage Use of Long-Term Gas Contracts,” which appears in Tuesday’s Daily GPI, Donald L. Mason, chairman of the Gas Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, should have been identified as a commissioner with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.

While expanded drilling in federal waters will not be addressed in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s budget reconciliation package Wednesday, Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) said he will press the Bush administration to use his own powers to open up a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to production activity.

A compromise under negotiation on offshore drilling between House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-CA, and Florida politicians could result in the leasing and drilling in about 70% of the eastern Gulf of Mexico area off the Florida coast that is expected to contain huge reserves.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is floating a discussion draft of a bill that would, among other things, give FERC the authority to regulate the rates for natural gas gathering service on the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), said energy analyst Christine Tezak.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), chairman of the powerful House Resources Committee, is circulating a proposal that, among other things, calls for the federal government to close and sell up to 15 national parks to the oil and natural gas industry and private developers.

Citing the disruptive effect of the active hurricane season on the domestic energy markets, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has urged the heads of the departments of energy, interior and treasury to take immediate steps to head off a natural gas supply and price crisis this winter.

Fireworks erupted Tuesday on the Senate floor between Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, over the issue of changing the 20-year-old moratorium on drilling on the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

With FERC scheduled Wednesday to weigh in on the “safe harbor” protection request made by the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) on behalf of its Energy Data Hub (see Daily GPI, June14), more parties are voicing their objections and support on the issue to the Commission. In addition to safe harbor protections for the Energy Data Hub and those that report to the hub, the CCRO requested assurances that FERC will not use the Energy Data Hub as a target for investigations by the Commission into transaction data by the participating companies.

Sen James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, introduced two energy-related bills this week, one that says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing under existing law, and a second that clarifies congressional intent in the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act that uncontaminated storm water discharges from oil and gas exploration, production, processing and treatment sites are exempt from the costly EPA storm water program.