Facing

There are risks facing the natural gas industry that could upset the current “gold rush” mentality, said speakers Tuesday at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) summer meeting in Los Angeles. Reserves estimates are but one concern.

Congressional Republicans are facing mounting pressure from the White House to rescind oil and natural gas tax breaks in a deal aimed at reducing the federal deficit and raising the debt ceiling. Producers say they plan to fight to retain the tax breaks, but they concede that it won’t be easy if the repeal of industry tax deductions is part of a “grand bargain” to cut the deficit.

Congressional Republicans are facing mounting pressure from the White House to rescind oil and natural gas tax breaks in a deal aimed at reducing the federal deficit. Producers say they plan to fight to retain the tax breaks, but they concede that it won’t be easy if the repeal of industry tax deductions is part of a “grand bargain” to cut the deficit.

In the wake of oil and gas drilling becoming permissible on state-owned land throughout Ohio, industry supporters are forming the Ohio Shale Coalition (OSC) to tout the economic benefits of developing the Marcellus and Utica shales while also countering the claims of detractors.

Having exited the global trading space and facing merchant power markets that are problematic, San Diego-based Sempra Energy will be placing renewed emphasis on its varied natural gas investments along with its California and foreign utilities. That was the essence of presentations at the energy holding company’s financial analysts’ meeting last Wednesday in New York City.

Having exited the global trading space and facing merchant power markets that are problematic, San Diego-based Sempra Energy will be placing renewed emphasis on its varied natural gas investments along with its California and foreign utilities. That was the essence of presentations at the energy holding company’s financial analysts’ meeting Wednesday in New York City.

California energy consumers are facing proposed rate hikes totaling more than $5 billion this year, and the state utility consumer unit is using its $28 million operations to play its part as the state-sanctioned consumer watchdog. In its 2010 annual accounting to the state legislature, the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) claimed to save energy ratepayers more than $5 billion, or $190 for every dollar allocated for its operations.

Natural gas drilling is facing pushback in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York from some whose fears of energy development have been stoked by the BP plc well blowout and spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). And worries about hydraulic fracturing (fracing) well stimulation techniques aren’t going away either as a new anti-drilling film on the topic is now playing on big and small screens.

Facing multi-billion-dollar budget shortfalls, the California legislature has warmed up an old proposal to levy a severance tax on oil and gas production to fund the state’s struggling higher education system. The measure, Assembly Bill 656 (AB 656), was voted out of the lower house Revenue and Taxation Committee last week with a “pass as amended” recommendation, sending the proposal to the Appropriations Committee.