Elections

Same question, same answer. For the second time in six months, voters in Youngstown, OH, on Tuesday rejected, by about a 55-45% margin, an amendment to the city’s charter that would have banned hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other activities that support shale development.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders jettisoned two board members up for reelection and approved three shareholder-initiated resolutions at the company’s annual meeting in Oklahoma City, signaling a turning point for the operator’s corporate governance and likely for the future of CEO Aubrey McClendon.

Alberta’s upstart Wildrose Alliance party thinks it has a winner in the April 23 provincial elections, promising that each of the 3.8 million men, women and children who live in Alberta will receive direct annual payments by 2015 of $300-400, or a total of $1.10-1.5 billion of the expected $10 billion in oilsands royalty revenue.

Alberta’s upstart Wildrose Alliance party thinks it has a winner in the April 23 provincial elections, promising that each of the 3.8 million men, women and children who live in Alberta will receive direct annual payments by 2015 of $300-400, or a total of $1.10-1.5 billion of the expected $10 billion in oilsands royalty revenue.

A Pennsylvania township has filed lawsuit against its county board of elections, arguing that a referendum put forth by an environmental group that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the township violates several state laws and could expose the municipality to legal action by the industry and others.

Supporters of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s reelection bid were more optimistic Friday after the Alaska Division of Elections revealed that besides the more than 11,000 absentee ballots that have come in so far, there are an additional 8,000-plus questioned ballots still to be counted in the Republican primary race Aug. 23 in which Tea Party candidate Joe Miller won the initial precinct count by 1,668 votes (see Daily GPI, Aug. 27).

Aggressive regulatory reviews and the midterm elections dulled North American electricity and natural gas utility merger and acquisition (M&A) activity last year, and U.S.-based power utilities failed to complete any “big deal” transactions, according to corporate consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) said he may challenge current House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) for the position of Republican leader in the wake of the Democratic sweep in the mid-term elections.

If President George W. Bush wins a second term, it’s “more likely” the standoff in the Senate over the comprehensive energy bill will be resolved “sooner rather than later,” according to a key gas industry lobbyist. But the White House occupant “is not the pivotal issue” when it comes to passing energy legislation, countered Charles Swab analyst Christine Tezak. The “incredibly thinly divided Senate” is the key factor.