Communication

Range Resources Corp. Tuesday was cleared of fouling North Texas water wells with natural gas by a unanimous vote of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). It was vindication for the Fort Worth, TX-based producer and an informal indictment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — not that anyone from the federal agency was at the meeting in Austin, TX, to hear it.

Pipeline companies are putting much more emphasis on stakeholder outreach in their plans for pipeline construction, including extensive communication with all stakeholders as part of early planning right on through construction. And they are incorporating changes where possible to address issues raised by state and local governments, advocacy groups and property owners.

Pipeline companies are putting much more emphasis on stakeholder outreach in their plans for pipeline construction, including extensive communication with all stakeholders as part of early planning right on through construction. And they are incorporating changes where possible to address issues raised by state and local governments, advocacy groups and property owners.

Veteran state regulator and former governor’s communication director Kris Mayes was selected Tuesday by her colleagues as chairman of the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). She is a Republican who has been elected twice to the regulatory panel after originally being appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2003.

With power off, land lines down and cellular phone towers demolished, communication continued to be a major problem for oil and natural gas companies trying to assess damage onshore and offshore from Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday.

Top U.S. pipeline industry leaders and key trade associations united Tuesday to urge the passage of an effective and responsible bill to promote the safety of more than two million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines.

The U.S. utility meter market is growing at a pace of about 3% ayear, rallied by innovative vendors who are winning market sharewith communication-enabled, low-priced meters that offset thesingle-phase residential meters, according to a new researchreport.

Electric restructuring should be left up to the states and besubject to a minimum of federal government involvement, accordingto one survey just completed for the Electric Consumers’ Alliance(ECA). Meanwhile, another survey by RKS Research & Consultantsfinds commercial customers are increasingly demanding of betterservice and lower rates from their electricity suppliers in stateswhere competition already has begun.