Earl

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced Friday that the state process has begun to include natural gas vehicles (NGV) on West Virginia’s bid list for 2013 model year vehicles, following a recommendation he received from his NGV Task Force. The contract bid has been included in the state’s current purchasing bulletin, calling for 36 different vehicle models with 10 of those specified as being fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG), an announcement from Tomblin’s office said. The contract is officially out to bid, the first step towards attaining the state’s goal of using its abundant gas supplies to fuel its vehicle fleet, Tomblin said. He also said that the NGV Task Force is exploring potential partnerships “with and among natural gas producers, infrastructure developers, vehicle manufacturers and other industry leaders” to expand the state’s fueling infrastructure for CNG. The Purchasing Division will hold a pre-bid conference Aug. 22 and the bid opening is scheduled for Sept. 6. Additional information is available to prospective bidders by contacting the Purchasing Division at (304) 558-4785 or (304) 558-2306.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Tuesday signed an executive order creating a statewide natural gas vehicle (NGV) task force to explore the option of creating a state fleet of natural gas vehicles (NGV). Part of the task force’s work will be to identify what is needed to create a compressed natural gas (CNG) infrastructure.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill Thursday that offers tax breaks to companies that build an ethane cracker in the state, then jetted off to Houston to meet with Royal Dutch Shell plc executives about their plans to possibly build such a facility in the Mountain State.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told legislators in his State of the State Address on Wednesday that he would intensify efforts to attract an ethane cracker to the state.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in his State of the State address last Wednesday that he would intensify efforts to attract an ethane cracker to the state.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a landmark Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill — also known as the Natural Gas Horizontal Wells Control Act — into law on Thursday.

The West Virginia state Senate unanimously approved Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s version of a Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill on Tuesday by a 33-0 vote.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has called the state legislature into a special session scheduled to begin Sunday (Dec. 11) to discuss, and possibly pass, a compromise Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill as early as this week. The Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale (JSCMS), a 10-member bipartisan committee, has been working on legislation informally known as the Marcellus Draft Bill (MDB) for weeks. The JSCMS used a failed bill called the Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, also known as SB 424, as the bill’s foundation (see NGI, Aug. 15). The shale gas industry is concerned by an amendment calling for operators to pay a $10,000 permitting fee for the first well drilled on a pad and $5,000 for each additional well well (see NGI, Nov. 28; Sept. 19). The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also has proposed increasing horizontal drilling fees to $10,000 — up from the current $650 paid by all drillers — to fund additional inspectors (see NGI, Feb. 14).

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin appears poised to call a special session of the legislature in mid-December to discuss, and hopefully pass, a compromise Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill.