Decision

The fate of the northern portion of the multi-billion-dollar Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the hands of the Obama administration will be the bellwether this coming year, determining if the U.S. technology-driven abundance of hydrocarbons is going to be cashed in as part of a North American-wide energy transformation, according to a former private equity energy star and now senior think tank fellow.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that state law doesn’t give landowners the right to seek judicial review of well permits issued by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). However, the appeals court urged lawmakers to consider changing the law to give landowners more say.

A judge’s pretrial decision this week to allow punitive damages in the consolidated civil legal cases filed against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) following the San Bruno, CA, pipeline explosion two years ago does not lessen the chances of a settlement, a PG&E spokesperson told NGI Thursday.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled that the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) had no authority to review local drilling ordinances for compliance with Act 13, a decision that could force the agency to release nearly $1 million in impact fee revenue withheld for noncompliance.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to fine an energy company for a 2010 fire could be the first time federal and state regulators have levied fines for the same incident in the Marcellus Shale.

A legislator in the Pennsylvania General Assembly on Monday said the state Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) decision to withhold nearly $1 million in impact fee revenue from four townships amounted to extortion.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday approved a “land-into-trust” application submitted by the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota to build the first U.S. refinery in decades — in the heart of the Bakken shale formation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Monday would not say whether it plans to appeal the appellate court decision tossing out the agency’s rule on limiting speculative trading, but some in industry are keeping their fingers crossed that the CFTC will take another route: start all over again on the rule.

A coalition of grassroots organizations in Ohio has started a campaign to restore local governments’ ability to regulate oil and natural gas drilling, a “home rule” power that could potentially be used by opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to ban the practice in their communities.