Dangerous

Calling it dangerous and potentially harmful to its ability to finance future natural gas pipeline safety upgrades, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last Friday filed a formal reply to state regulators, strongly rejecting a safety staff recommendation of a $2.25 billion for PG&E’s part in the Sept. 9, 2010 pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno, CA.

With the domestic shale gale in full force, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the ranking Republican on the committee, vowed Tuesday to work together in a bipartisan effort to rethink energy regulation — but their differences on the issued appear unresolved.

Two small earthquakes in northwest England that occurred earlier this year at some natural gas drilling sites likely were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), according to a report issued on Wednesday by UK-based Cuadrilla Resources Ltd.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal has a message for the natural gas industry: stop attacking coal. “This is an incredibly dangerous premise to go forward on as a state and as a country,” the governor said Thursday. “Once you go at each other’s throat, nobody wins.”

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal has a message for the natural gas industry: stop attacking coal. “This is an incredibly dangerous premise to go forward on as a state and as a country,” the governor said Thursday. “Once you go at each other’s throat, nobody wins.”

Though Bill remains hundreds of miles from the East Coast, it is now an “extremely dangerous” Category Four hurricane and could give the coast of New England a glancing blow by Sunday, the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Wednesday.

Saying America’s addiction to imported oil is a “growing and dangerous” crisis, independent oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens unveiled an energy plan that he said could reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third within 10 years by shifting the national energy mix toward domestic renewable sources and using more natural gas as a transportation fuel.

With Dennis having further strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category Four hurricane overnight, producers scrambled Friday morning to batten down the hatches in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by evacuating platform and drilling rig workers and shutting in production as necessary. Pipelines with offshore segments or connections in the eastern Gulf were posting bulletin board warnings of expected supply losses as the day wore on and instructing shippers on the proper response.

Moody’s Investors Service warned yesterday that some municipalelectric utilities face a dangerous possibility of having to buymore power than expected on the spot market because of very lowhydroelectric supplies.