Fine

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Rice Energy Inc. subsidiaries $3.5 million for violations at 10 well sites and six pipeline locations in Washington and Greene counties in the southwest part of the state.

The dustup over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to levy a fine against BP plc in a 2008 market manipulation case appears far from over. Last week BP filed a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit asking the Court to step into the case [IN13-15] to review portions of July’s opinion No. 549 which imposed a $20.16 million fine and ordered BP to disgorge $207,169 (see Daily GPI, July 12; Aug. 13, 2015). And late on Monday, in response to a request from BP, FERC put the disgorgement on hold when it was discovered that the Texas Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program which was to receive the funds was not authorized to receive awards from FERC. The Commission also effectively tabled for now challenges to the main part of its decision by ordering rehearing for further consideration. BP detailed what it claimed were dozens of errors and inconsistencies that rendered opinion No. 549 “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law” (see Daily GPI, Aug. 12).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Stonehenge Appalachia LLC $1.5 million for a series of unauthorized sediment discharges and a landslide it caused in Western Pennsylvania during the construction of a natural gas gathering system there.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has dropped its efforts to collect what could have been a record fine of $8.9 million from Range Resources Corp. for what the agency thought was a leaking natural gas well in Lycoming County.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has collected a $14,440 fine from Williams Ohio Valley Midstream for a violation of the federal Clean Water Act after a four-inch diameter pipeline ruptured in its natural gas gathering and processing system in Marshall County, WV.

California’s state regulatory commission safety unit last Friday refunded to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) a $375,000 fine paid earlier in the year for decades-long shortcomings in the utility’s natural gas transmission pipeline safety programs.

UGI Corp.’s Pennsylvania-based natural gas utility has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle allegations that it failed to adequately maintain and repair a 50-year-old high-pressure gas main in Wilkes Barre.

The Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) said it has assessed civil penalties on a Utah produce for “knowing or willful” maintenance of false, inaccurate or misleading royalty information on ONRR’s financial system.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed 29 bills into law on Tuesday, including SB 259, which the state’s chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) has derided as “a kissing cousin to forced pooling.”