Defeated

Despite a dozen small earthquakes in 2011 blamed on wastewater disposal wells, voters in the City of Youngstown, OH, stood firm on Tuesday and defeated, by a 57-43% margin, an amendment to the city’s charter that would have banned hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

An environmental group opposed to high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in New York State has launched a campaign asking the top 1,000 contributors to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reelection effort to pressure him to ban the practice.

As part of a trio of measures voted out by the House Natural Resources Committee last Wednesday, Republicans defeated an attempt by Democrats to block future exports of natural gas produced on the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

As part of a trio of measures voted out by the House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday, Republicans defeated an attempt by Democrats to block future exports of natural gas produced on the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Even though a statewide ballot initiative to boost natural gas for transportation was defeated soundly by California voters last month, T. Boone Pickens’ gas-powered transportation company, Clean Energy Fuels Corp., said Monday it has won a 10-year contract with the City of Glendale, CA, to build and operate a new large-scale public access compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facility to support the city’s expanding CNG-powered vehicle fleets.

Oil and natural gas producers scored a major victory last Thursday when the House defeated a Democratic measure that would have forced them to either use their existing leases or lose them. The House did pass two energy bills before leaving for the week-long Fourth of July recess, one which requires the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to be more aggressive in its oversight of energy futures markets and another that would provide mass transit agencies with new funds to deal with skyrocketing gasoline and fuel prices.

Oil and natural gas producers scored a major victory Thursday when the House defeated a Democratic measure that would have forced them to either use their existing leases or lose them. The House did pass two energy bills before leaving for the Fourth of July recess, which require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to be more aggressive in its regulation of energy futures markets and would provide mass transit agencies with new funds to deal with skyrocketing gasoline and fuel prices.

An Interior Department official Tuesday said the agency didn’t expect any more producers to renegotiate faulty 1998-1999 offshore oil and natural gas leases until the court case involving Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas is resolved.

The House Tuesday defeated by voice vote a Republican amendment that sought to lift the 25-year-old congressional moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling 100 miles off U.S. coastlines.