Fiscal

FERC obtained more than $148 million in civil penalties and disgorgement of more than $119 million in unjust profits in fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to the agency’s annual report on enforcement, which was released last Thursday.

The head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission decried a House appropriations subcommittee’s vote last week to reduce spending for the agency in fiscal year (FY) 2013. The move comes at a time when the CFTC is gearing up to oversee the multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market.

A district court judge in Texas has reversed his earlier ruling that oil and natural gas equipment used “below ground” should be exempt from state sales taxes on extraction equipment.

Texas could lose an estimated $4.4 billion in revenue from oil and gas sales taxes, depending on how a district court judge tailors his ruling on exempting oil and gas companies from paying the state sales taxes on extraction equipment.

Two members of the Ohio General Assembly announced Tuesday that they are drafting a bill that calls for raising the state’s severance tax on natural gas drilling and would create a fund for localities where drilling takes place.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) took center stage at a House hearing Wednesday on the fiscal year (FY) 2013 Interior Department budget, with Secretary Ken Salazar saying that he hopes that federal government research into the shale gas practice will end “a lot of the hysteria” surrounding the drilling practice.

The Obama administration Monday proposed 41% less in funding for the energy assistance program for fiscal year (FY) 2013 than was sought by a major utility group.

President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budgets for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Interior (DOI) propose funding directed at assessing the impact of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale.

Oil and natural gas producers got a dose of good news Wednesday when the House Appropriations Committee released its fiscal year (FY) 2012 spending bill for the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and related agencies.