Gesture

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a bill that calls for a ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Wednesday, a largely symbolic gesture but one that makes the Green Mountain State the first in the nation to outlaw the practice.

In a conciliatory gesture to the states of Washington and Oregon, NorthernStar Energy LLC and Bradwood Landing LLC have asked FERC to hold rehearing of the order approving the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated pipeline “in abeyance” to give the states more time to mull over the project and requests for state permits.

In a conciliatory gesture to the states of Washington and Oregon, NorthernStar Energy LLC and Bradwood Landing LLC have asked FERC to hold rehearing of the order approving the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated pipeline “in abeyance” to give the states more time to mull over the project and requests for state permits.

In what amounts to a largely symbolic gesture, the elected Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday night to support a resumption of drilling off its Southern California coast. The board agreed to write to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to reverse the state’s decades-long opposition to any additional drilling.

As a promotional and lobbying gesture, Mitsubishi Corp.-backed Sound Energy Solutions (SES) committed late Tuesday that its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Long Beach, CA, harbor will meet all of the new LNG safety standards released earlier in the month by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT). The new rules, however, won’t require any change in design or plans for the receiving terminal, said SES’s Long Beach-based chief executive Tom Giles.

As a promotional and lobbying gesture, Mitsubishi Corp.-backed Sound Energy Solutions (SES) committed late Tuesday that its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Long Beach, CA, harbor will meet all of the new LNG safety standards released earlier in the month by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT). The new rules, however, won’t require any change in design or plans for the receiving terminal, said SES’s Long Beach-based chief executive Tom Giles.

In a take-it-or-leave-it gesture, California consumer advocatesTuesday handed the governor and state legislature an ultimatum torollback electric industry restructuring and insert the state in anexpanded role over the development and operation of power plants.If the elected officials fail to act, the consumer activists planto put another measure on the statewide ballot in 2002.

In a gesture of conciliation, the Edison Electric Institute(EEI) yesterday said it will meet with board members of the GasIndustry Standards Board (GISB) within the next few weeks in aneffort to bring more electric utilities and electric-relatedcompanies into the debate over whether retail standards should beestablished for electricity and, if so, by whom.