Environmental

Spire’s five natural gas utilities — Alagasco, Laclede Gas, Missouri Gas Energy, Mobile Gas and Willmut Gas — have all begun operating under the St. Louis-based parent company’s name. Included in the launch of the united utility, Spire announced a new mobile-friendlywebsite for customers. Spire serves 1.7 million natural gas customers in Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri. Non-utility operations include Spire Marketing, which provides natural gas marketing and related services.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) has granted Sunoco Pipeline LP’s request to resume horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East (ME) 2 pipeline at select sites across the state to preserve equipment and prevent environmental damage.

Opponents of Obama-era rules governing new sources of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are urging a federal appeals court to rehear a legal challenge to the rules, arguing that a three-judge panel erred when it lifted a stay last month.

A coalition of environmental groups said it has amassed more than 63,000 signatures to a petition calling for a permanent ban of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Delaware River Basin and plans this week to deliver it to four governors and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and related Equitrans Expansion Project (EEP) received a favorable final environmental impact statement (FEIS) from FERC Friday, paving the way for a potential certificate decision later this year.

Two U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field offices in Utah are seeking public comments through July 24 on environmental assessments (EA) for proposed oil and natural gas lease sales in the northeast area of the state. The EAs would be used to determine which parcel are included in the sales, now scheduled for December. One EA assessed 64 potential parcels, comprising 66,626 acres, in Duchesne and Uintah counties, including 2,080 acres of split-estate land. The second EA looked at 15 potential parcels comprising 32,013 acres in Emery County, mostly southeast of Ferron.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an opinion that upholds and further develops an environmental rights amendment in the state’s constitution that fossil fuel opponents have increasingly invoked in legal challenges to hinder shale gas development.

The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas has denied Sunoco Pipeline LP’s request to summarily dismiss a lawsuit filed last year by the Clean Air Council (CAC) and two landowners that challenges the constitutionality of the Mariner East 2 pipeline, clearing the way forward for one of the last remaining legal efforts to stop the project.

Industry and environmental advocates disagreed sharply on Wednesday during a Congressional subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, about an increasingly common practice of environmental legal settlements morphing into de facto regulation.