Disaster

House energy bill provisions that would take away producer tax incentives and repeal parts of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) would be a disaster for the oil and natural gas industry, a top official of a producer group told a House committee last Wednesday.

House energy bill provisions that would take away producer tax incentives and repeal parts of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) would be a disaster for the oil and natural gas industry, a top official of a producer group told a House committee Wednesday.

Energy policymakers are quickly headed for disaster this winter, said DTE Energy Gas President Stephen Ewing, the 2006 chairman of the American Gas Association. He said the magnitude of the situation will dawn on the nation’s 52 million natural gas consumers when they get their gas bills about mid-December and see massive cost increases. But there is still time for the industry to do something about it.

Bucking the trend that has brought other companies’ merchant operations to the brink of disaster, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. on Tuesday reported that its energy trading earnings for the fourth quarter were up 33% from the same period of 2001, while overall, quarterly earnings rose more than 25%.

The federal government, state agencies and individual natural gas pipelines need to work cooperatively to develop emergency-response plans that clear the path for the rapid reconstruction of facilities damaged in either terrorist attacks, natural disasters or by ruptures to pipeline systems, federal and state officials agreed last week, as they met to carve out their roles during emergency situations.

As the week of the worst natural gas pipeline disaster on recordever drew to a close, with the last victim dying on Friday, federalregulators weren’t saying when El Paso Natural Gas could re-open atleast one of the three lines comprising its South Mainline systemthat was ordered shut down following the explosion in New Mexicothat claimed 12 lives (see Daily GPI, Aug. 25).