Damaging

“Human error” by a utility employee caused an explosion on the Columbia Gas Co. of Massachusetts system that rocked Springfield, MA, Friday night, damaging 42 homes and businesses and sending 18 people, mostly first responders, to area hospitals, said state Fire Marshall Stephen Coan and the Massachusetts’ Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Sunday. But the head of the company said the worker followed proper procedure.

Local government officials from around Colorado took a swipe at Gov. John Hickenlooper for suing the city of Longmont, CO, to turn back its ordinance establishing natural gas and oil drilling regulations within its boundaries. The state maintains exclusive jurisdiction in this area under the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).

A man who worked briefly for a company that built a natural gas pipeline in Lycoming County, PA, for Chief Oil and Gas LLC has pleaded guilty to damaging the pipeline after the construction company fired him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Citing commercial, environmental and technological uncertainties, the environmental group Western Resource Advocates (WRA) released a report casting doubts on oil shale, and emphasizing its distinct differences with shale gas and shale oil.

Hawk Field Services LLC (HFS), a subsidiary of Petrohawk Energy Corp., on Tuesday was fined $350,000, ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution and placed on probation for three years for damaging endangered species habitat in the Fayetteville Shale in Van Buren County, AR.

In some of the most damaging testimony so far in the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, David Delainey, who once headed the wholesale gas trading unit, testified Tuesday the company played “fast and loose” with accounting rules, and financial tricks were “standard operating procedure.