Districts

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) late Monday filed a lawsuit in a county district court seeking to invalidate the city of Longmont’s ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within its city limits. COGA told the court the resolution essentially is a ban on oil/natural gas drilling.

The Pittsburgh City Council has referred a series of proposed amendments, which would create “mineral extraction districts” and possibly open the city to at least limited Marcellus Shale drilling, to the city’s planning commission.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said $18 million in grants is available to businesses, governmental entities, school districts and individuals that replace older medium- or heavy-duty gasoline or diesel vehicles with natural gas vehicles (NGV) or repower the older vehicles with natural gas engines. Applicants must apply for Texas Natural Gas Vehicle Grant Program grants through a participating dealer. A list of participating dealers is available at www.terpgrants.org. The predetermined grant amounts are 60-90% of the incremental cost of the NGVs and engines, and are based on the fuel capacity, usage and weight class of the grant-funded vehicles. Grant applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Projects must result in at least a 25% reduction of emissions of nitrogen oxides, and grant recipients must commit to operate the grant-funded vehicles in eligible Texas counties for at least 75% of the annual mileage for four years, or 400,000 miles, whichever occurs earlier. Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2013 or until all funds are awarded. For information call (800) 919-TERP (8377).

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) has about $700,000 available in grants to help public fleet operators, such as school districts, cities and counties, buy new natural gas vehicles. The grant funding, which the RRC originally received to use for propane-fueled vehicles, has now been expanded to natural gas vehicles and can be used to offset some or all of the incremental costs of a natural gas fuel system on a new or retrofitted vehicle. Matching funds for the purchase of the vehicles must come from non-federal sources. Public fleets statewide are eligible to apply for the grants, regardless of the fleet location’s air-quality classification. More information is available at the RRC website.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to spend millions for repairs to roads in four counties in the West Virginia Panhandle, in order to mitigate damage done to the roads by trucks hauling equipment and water to its wells sites in the region.

In an effort to attract large businesses to their districts, twoOregon state legislators introduced a bill recently that wouldprovide $20 million in lottery funds to help build a 64-milepipeline. No engineering study for the pipeline has been conductedso far. The bill’s main supporters, state Sen. Veral Tarno(R-Coquille) and Rep. Ken Messerle (R-Coos County), said some ofthe funds also could be used to build a high-voltage power line.