Convention

TravelCenters of America (TA) CEO Tom O’Brien is to deliver the opening keynote address June 25 at the 2013 Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in the Washington, DC, convention center June 24-27. TA is making what the ACT sponsors called significant investments to provide its customers with alternative fuel options, including natural gas. TA and Royal Dutch Shell plc in April announced plans to build a network of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling lanes at existing TA locations nationwide (see Daily GPI, April 22). Shell has committed to creating a “U.S. network of LNG fueling centers for heavy duty road transport customers” stretching from coast to coast. O’Brien is expected to add more color to the ongoing push of commercial trucking fleets to use alternative fuels.

Negotiations at the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ended in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Saturday, produced a nonbinding agreement that could cost the United States and other developed countries $100 billion in coming years but, according to some critics, will do little to affect global climate change.

The Florida Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, which has long opposed offshore drilling, conditionally endorsed federal and state policies allowing the production of oil and natural gas from existing leases within the Gulf of Mexico at least 30 miles from the Florida coastline. The conditions include: Florida offshore drilling must be a component of a comprehensive energy policy; production facilities must incorporate the most advanced zero-discharge systems; Congress must allow for sharing of royalties between states and the federal government; a five-year moratorium on new leases in the eastern Gulf must be established so state officials can evaluate production safety and evaluate any impact on Florida’s natural resources; and the military mission of the Defense Department shall have the first priority in the Gulf offshore.

Republican presidential contender John McCain and running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, joined forces last week at the Republican National Convention to express their support for domestic oil and natural gas drilling.

Republican presidential contender John McCain pledged to carry out an all-out attack on the nation’s energy woes in his speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention.

The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer 207,381 acres of federal land in an oral oil and gas lease auction on Aug. 7 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Cheyenne. The sale involves 179 parcels with more than 50% of the acreage located in Natrona, Washakie and Weston counties. Leases are for a primary term of 10 years and “will continue beyond the primary term as long as long as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities on or for the benefit of the lease.” The complete list of parcels is available on the Wyoming BLM website, http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/energy/Oil_and_Gas/Leasing.html. Protests of the Aug. 7, oil and gas lease auction are due at the BLM Wyoming State Office by 4 p.m. on July 23. The BLM has tentatively scheduled its next lease auction for Oct 7.

In an effort to bolster and better protect the nation’s utility infrastructure, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) at its annual convention last week elevated its ad hoc committee on Critical Infrastructure to permanent status.

In an effort to bolster and better protect the nation’s utility infrastructure, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) at its annual convention Monday elevated its ad hoc committee on Critical Infrastructure to permanent status.

Tucked away in the corner of the spacious and empty Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center earlier this month, a joint federal-local port hearing on Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi’s proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal drew many community stakeholders, but only three independent citizens, none of whom objected to accelerated preliminary environmental review.