Findings

Senate chairman of Committee of Energy and Natural Resources, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, last week rejected the findings of a study published last year for the Department of Energy (DOE) that favors liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and called for a do-over.

In a letter to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Steven Chu, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) rejected the findings of a study conducted by NERA Economic Consulting on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The study determined that the “macroeconomic impacts of LNG exports are positive in all cases.” The study was performed on behalf of the DOE and could prove critical in the department’s decisions regarding LNG export permits.

The petrochemical industry in the United States is poised for a “spectacular comeback,” thanks to an abundant supply of feedstock from shale reserves, industry analysts with GlobalData said Monday.

The Natural Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Wednesday began sifting through pieces of the Columbia Gas Transmission system that ruptured near the pipeline’s Lanham Compressor Station sear Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly close to making a public endorsement of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) and will unveil a plan to allow the practice on a limited scale initially, but under strict regulation and only in localities that welcome it.

The DeWitt County, TX, tax base might be bursting with Eagle Ford Shale dollars, but the South Texas county’s roads are buckling under the weight of trucks and other vehicles in the service of developing the play, a new study has found. And a county judge claims his county and others in the play are being short-changed when it comes to funds for road repair.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last week disputed many of the findings about the San Bruno, CA, natural gas pipeline explosion in September 2010 that were handed down by the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) Consumer Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD).

A Texas couple that has sued Range Resources Corp. for allegedly contaminating its drinking water with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Thursday lost a bid for dismissal of the company’s countersuit, which alleges that the couple participated in a conspiracy to defame Range.

Two counties in western Pennsylvania, which is in a red hot region of the Marcellus Shale, were among the top 10 in the nation for employment gains in large counties between March 2010 and March 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.