Explain

Darrell Royal, the revered former head coach for the University of Texas football team, used to explain his team’s success by paraphrasing a line from a 1920s song, “You dance with the one that brung ya.” Ultra Petroleum Corp., which has stuck with natural gas while others have moved along, is discovering that gas can be one expensive date.

Darrell Royal, the revered former head coach for the University of Texas football team, used to explain his team’s success by borrowing a line from a 1920s song, “You dance with the one that brung ya.” Ultra Petroleum Corp., which has stuck with natural gas while others have moved along, is discovering that gas can be one expensive date.

The House Agriculture Committee has subpoenaed Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global Holdings Ltd. and former governor of New Jersey, to attend a hearing Thursday to explain the events that led up to the company’s Oct. 31 bankruptcy and the disappearance of an estimated $1.2 billion in customer funds.

In what’s become a larger-than-life drama, natural gas is the energy growth engine for the next 20 years, and hydraulic fracturing in North America is the driver, according to ExxonMobil’s Paul Greenwood, vice president for Americas gas marketing, in keynote remarks at a gas industry meeting in Los Angeles Tuesday.

The shift to shales — and the rise in oil prices — has lifted the domestic rig count close to 20-year highs and shifted the landscape, helped several states join Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in the chase for natural gas and oil production, according to Headwaters Economics.

The shale natural gas industry is “under siege” by some critics and without the public’s support, access to the massive reserves also could be diminished, an industry executive said Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said its inspectors have always been allowed to issue notices of violation (NOV) to Marcellus Shale operators without requiring approval from top agency officials. The agency said it has issued its staff a clarification stating as much.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was called to task last week by House Republicans from two separate committees who want him to explain comments indicating natural gas drillers may be required to disclose hydraulic fracturing (fracking) chemicals used to develop shale and tight gas on public lands.

House Republicans from two separate committees are asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to explain comments he made Tuesday that indicated natural gas drillers may be required to disclose hydraulic fracturing (fracking) chemicals used to develop shale and tight gas on public lands.