Fine

California regulators have fined Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) $106 million for allegedly violating guidelines in 2019 for executing planned power outages to lower wildfire risks.  The fine by an administrative law judge (ALJ) is part of an ongoing effort by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to hold the state’s major investor-owned utilities…

A series of natural gas explosions in September 2018 that rocked three communities north of Boston, killing one man and injuring 22, has resulted in an expected criminal fine of $53 million and three years of probation for Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (CMA). The NiSource Inc. subsidiary already had agreed in February to plead guilty…

Antero Resources Corp. has reached a settlement with federal and West Virginia regulators to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations at 32 sites that could find it paying more than $11 million for penalties and environmental restoration work.

Blue Ridge Mountain Resources Inc. stockholders have approved the company’s merger with Eclipse Resources Corp., clearing one of the last hurdles for the combination. The deal has already been approved by boths boards and Eclipse’s stockholders. Once the transaction is completed, which is expected in the last week of February, the new company is to be renamed Montage Resources Corp. and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MR.” The new company would have a 227,000 net acre position in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and produce about 560 MMcfe/d.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has again fined Energy Transfer Partners LP subsidiary Sunoco Pipeline LP $148,000 for violations of the Clean Streams Law and the Dam Safety and Encroachment Act that occurred during construction of the Mariner East (ME) 2 pipeline.

CSX Corp. has reached a settlement with the federal government and West Virginia, agreeing to pay a $1.2 million civil penalty for a 2015 incident in which a 109-car train it operated that was carrying Bakken Shale crude oil derailed. Twenty-seven of the tank cars, carrying 29,000 gallons of oil each, derailed, caught fire and exploded. West Virginia is to receive $1 million of the civil penalty. The Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and West Virginia announced the consent decree, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. CSX also agreed to pay $500,000 into a state-administered fund to upgrade a water treatment facility.

Rover Pipeline LLC has agreed to pay a $430,030 civil penalty for numerous sediment and erosion control violations during construction in West Virginia, according to a consent order released by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has slapped Sunoco Pipeline LP with a “historic” $12.6 million fine to resolve dozens of violations related to the company’s Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project, which has also been cleared to restart construction that was suspended early last month.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) this week said it has collected a $1.7 million fine from the now-defunct Energy Corporation of America (ECA) for violations at 17 unconventional well sites in Greene and Clearfield counties.