Conduct

BP plc said Thursday it would appeal a U.S. district court ruling that found it grossly negligent for the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, a ruling likely to cost billions in Clean Water Act (CWA) penalties. Contractors Halliburton Co. and Transocean Ltd. also were found negligent, but the court said their share of liability was “considerably less.”

Despite facing legal challenges to conduct emissions auctions, California’s cap-and-trade program to auction greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions raised nearly $280 million earlier this month, selling out its entire carbon allowance allotments of 14.5 million.

The New York State Petroleum Council (NYSPC), a division of the American Petroleum Institute (API), announced Monday that it would conduct the first of a series of free webinars about hydraulic fracturing for the public on Wednesday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it agrees with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) over not listing a nearly 100-mile section of the main stem of the Susquehanna River at the foot of the Marcellus Shale as an impaired waterway, despite concerns over the health of the river’s smallmouth bass.

A former steel plant in Steubenville, OH, is being redeveloped into an industrial park, a portion of which state and local officials say will be used to support operations in the Marcellus Shale.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) said it has reversed course and now plans to conduct a docket review of two completed natural gas transmission line projects in northeast Pennsylvania, but it is resisting calls from an environmental group to reexamine a third pipeline.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a division of the Commerce Department, said it plans to conduct a supplemental environmental review of the incidental taking of marine mammals, specifically whales, dolphins, sea lions and seals, by the oil and gas industry incidental to exploration activities in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a division of the Commerce Department, announced that it plans to conduct a supplemental environmental review of the incidental taking of marine mammals, specifically whales, dolphins, sea lions and seals, by the oil and gas industry incidental to exploration activities in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will undertake a 12-14 month comprehensive study of naturally occurring levels of radioactivity in by-products of oil and natural gas development, the agency said Thursday.