Decision

Coal-to-natural gas switching became a live issue for Wisconsin Energy’s major utility, We Energies, with the decision Friday to switch a long-time coal-fired cogeneration facility serving downtown Milwaukee to natural gas. The Valley Power Plant is a 280 MW facility providing steam and electricity.

As energy companies begin collecting production data from the few wells drilled so far in Ohio’s portion of the Utica Shale, a picture is starting to emerge that company executives and industry experts agree will determine how, where and when the play will ultimately be developed.

In Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board will announce a decision on whether to allow a proposal by a midstream subsidiary of UGI Corp. to move forward at its next meeting on Sept. 4. UGI Energy Services Inc. wants to construct 27.4 miles of pipeline across Wyoming and Luzerne counties (see Shale Daily, Aug. 7). The balance of the project, 23.4 miles, would be a 24-inch diameter pipeline starting at the current terminus of UGI’s Auburn Pipeline in Wyoming and running southeast into Luzerne, with a new interconnection with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) at West Wyoming Borough. The proposed compressor station would have three units with about 200,000 Dth/d of capacity. UGI also proposes to build four miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline, which would run south from the Transco interconnect and enter the city of Wilkes-Barre, where it would connect to the natural gas distribution system operated by UGI Utilities Inc., another subsidiary.

A write-down on U.S. natural gas resources, a decision to cancel a flagship drilling project offshore Alaska, and the continuing impact of the Macondo well blowout pummeled BP plc’s profits in the second quarter.

A decision by Range Resources Corp. to sell its Barnett Shale portfolio last year to devote more resources to the Marcellus Shale appears to have paid off handsomely, with unconventional output jumping 42% in 2Q2012 from the year-ago period. Natural gas, which makes up 80% of the producer’s total output, rose 48%.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center attorneys have gone to the state’s appeals court seeking to overturn a decision by appointees of Gov. Susana Martinez to roll back a climate change law opposed by the oil/gas industry. The law was passed two years ago in a Democratic administration before Martinez, a Republican, took office.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed a final environmental review that will serve to support decision-making with respect to oil and natural gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next five years.

Officials in the Town — not the City — of Rochester, NY, are considering a ban on natural gas extraction.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has the right idea with its measured approach to oil shale production in the western United States given the risks involved, according to a white paper by sustainability advocate Ceres.