Fired

The Interior Department has fired back at a federal judge’s mid-February order for the department’s Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) to act within 30 days on five pending permit applications to drill wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). In a new filing Interior has asked for a stay of the judge’s order.

The Interior Department has fired back at a federal judge’s mid-February order for the department’s Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) to act within 30 days on five pending permit applications to drill wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). In a new filing Interior has asked for a stay of the judge’s order.

A natural gas-fired Honda passenger vehicle was named the top-ranked clean vehicle for the eighth consecutive year earlier in February, and Chrysler Group LLC, a unit of Italy-based Fiat SpA, announced last Friday it was considering making a compressed natural gas (CNG) version of its popular Ram truck.

The state of New Jersey has fired another salvo in its attempt to sink Spectra Energy’s proposal to expand its Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) and Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline systems in the Northeast.

The state of New Jersey fired another salvo in an attempt to sink Spectra Energy’s proposal to expand its Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) and Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline systems.

A coalition of 48 House lawmakers led by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Jared Polis (D-CO) have fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar expressing their support for the department’s plans to require public disclosure of the chemicals that producers use in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) process for development of shale gas.

Alexander B. Grannis, chief of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), was fired by Gov. David Paterson late last Thursday after an unsigned memo was leaked to the press disparaging staff cutsthat would, among other things, impede the agency’s effectiveness to oversee natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

A C$5 billion integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, petrochemical complex and gas-fired cogeneration power plant in Goldboro, NS, received a favorable preliminary environmental review with a number of conditions last week. The Maple LNG project, formerly named Keltic LNG, which is sponsored by Netherlands-based Petroplus International and Russia’s Suntera Canada Ltd., would provide 1 Bcf/d of gas to the power plant and petrochemical complex being built by Keltic Petrochemicals.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has fired off letters to the chairmen of key committees requesting that they make recommendations or report legislation before the Fourth of July recess that would address the “unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico [GOM].”