Faulty

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) placed 208 trucks out of service in a three-day enforcement sweep that focused on commercial vehicles that haul wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas drilling sites, Police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski said Wednesday.

An Interior Department official Tuesday said the agency didn’t expect any more producers to renegotiate faulty 1998-1999 offshore oil and natural gas leases until the court case involving Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas is resolved.

The Bush administration, in order to avoid widespread litigation, needs to use “sugar” rather than a “hammer” to get producers to renegotiate their faulty 1998-1999 leases that are costing the federal government billions in lost royalties, the head of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) told a House Natural Resources’ subcommittee Tuesday.

The American Public Gas Association (APGA) wants the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to make a “full and public statement” about what happened on Nov. 24, when an erroneous natural gas storage report was inadvertently released and triggered a significant rise in futures prices, a spokeswoman for the group said Monday.

A Senate report’s conclusion that the natural gas and oilindustries aren’t likely to be ready for the computer-relatedsystem challenges of the Year 2000 is based on “out-of-date”information that “misses [the] significant progress the industrieshave made” during the past six months, said major industry tradegroups.

A Senate report’s conclusion that the natural gas and oilindustries aren’t likely to be ready for the computer-relatedsystem challenges of the Year 2000 is based on “out-of-date”information that “misses [the] significant progress the industrieshave made” during the past six months, said major industry tradegroups.