Exercise

A coalition of landowners in Wayne County, PA says it has “run out of patience” with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), and is urging the organization to either enact natural gas regulations or step aside and let the states do so.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) agreed Thursday to a request by New York that any water withdrawal applications for natural gas development in the state be postponed until the Empire State completes its environmental review of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

A proposal before the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to revise its water quality regulations and open the basin to Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling suffered a serious setback after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said Thursday his state would vote against the plan.

The war of words continued on Wednesday between Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) and the object of its merger affections, Southern Union Co.

FERC has rejected a request by associations representing major gas shippers to exercise its Section 5 authority requiring pipelines to amend their tariffs to comply with the Commission’s policy on the crediting of reservation charges during service outages — both planned and unplanned. But the association did not walk away empty handed.

The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC) should deny an application from Laser Northeast Gathering Co. LLC to be deemed a public utility with the ability to exercise the right of public domain for its proposed gathering and transportation pipeline in Susquehanna County, PA, according to an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) recommendation to the PUC.

FERC last Thursday finalized a series of reforms to its market-based rate program that seek to shield consumers from the exercise of market power by electric power sellers.

FERC has yet to exercise its increased penalty authority under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), but Columbia Gulf Transmission could be the first company — at least on the natural gas side — assessed the tougher penalties, the director of FERC’s Office of Enforcement indicated last Tuesday.

FERC has yet to exercise its increased penalty authority under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), but Columbia Gulf could be the first company — at least on the natural gas side — assessed the tougher penalties, the director of FERC’s Office of Enforcement indicated Tuesday.