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The five-member California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday split over the fate of an independent power provider’s natural gas-fired generation plant, but in the end approved it and a long-delayed gas-fired peaking plant in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles.

The expanding U.S. supply of natural gas is providing a win-win for chemicals producers, their suppliers and customers. It’s “an unbelievable opportunity,” Jim Teague, COO of Enterprise Products Partners, told an industry audience in Houston.

Low natural gas prices and increased supplies are reviving the chemical manufacturing industry within the United States as evidenced by the news Wednesday that Dow Chemical Co. is authorizing final engineering and lead-time equipment spending for a new, world-scale propylene production facility in Texas, which will take advantage of increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas as a feedstock.

Individual operators reported record-breaking production from the Marcellus Shale in 2011, producing more than 1 Tcf from the Pennsylvania portion of the play, according to new Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) data.

BP plc has accumulated close to 450,000 net acres in the the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, executives said Tuesday.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Friday issued a draft proposal, cutting in half the public lands that could be made available in three western states, and limiting activities to early research and development projects for oil shale and tar sands resources.

Dave Neslin, who has helmed the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) for five years and who helped to shape and then implement more stringent statewide natural gas and oil regulations, is resigning effective March 1 to join Denver law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP. Neslin, who joined the COGCC on an interim basis in late 2007, was instrumental in implementing the controversial drilling regulations that increased scrutiny of gas and oil production in 2009. Neslin was appointed to his current position in April 2009. Prior to joining the commission Neslin, an attorney, had been a partner in Denver law firm Arnold & Porter. No replacement has been named by the commission.

Dave Neslin, who has headed the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) for five years and who helped to shape and then implement more stringent statewide natural gas and oil regulations, said he is resigning effective March 1 to join Denver law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP. Neslin, who joined the COGCC on an interim basis in late 2007, was instrumental in implementing the controversial regulations that increased scrutiny of gas and oil production in the state in 2009. Neslin was appointed to his current position in April 2009. Prior to joining the commission Neslin, an attorney, had been a partner in Denver law firm Arnold & Porter. No replacement has been named by the commission.

Two members of the five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) have been confirmed by the state Senate, preserving their six-year tenures in the regulatory body. Commissioners Mike Florio, a former consumer attorney, and Catherine Sandoval, a former official with the Federal Communications Commission, were appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown and would have had to step down in February if the Senate had failed to act. Both of their terms are to expire Jan. 1, 2017. A third Brown appointee from last year to the CPUC, Mark Ferron, is still unconfirmed, but he has until mid-March to gain confirmation.