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After expressing initial reservations, a group representing county governments in Pennsylvania is now supporting a county-level impact fee proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett.

A California regulatory judge last week issued a proposed draft resolution to give safety staff broader authority to issue citations and levy fines for violations of natural gas pipeline regulations. The proposal is in response to a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in its final report on last year’s San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture and explosion.

A California regulatory judge on Monday issued a proposed draft resolution to give safety staff broader authority to issue citations and levy fines for violations of natural gas pipeline regulations. The proposal is in response to a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in its final report on last year’s San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture and explosion.

Major producer groups have called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give them more time to comment on the proposed rules aimed at reducing air pollution from oil and natural gas operations.

Major producer groups have called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give them more time to comment on the proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and natural gas production, especially operations employing hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) can’t refuse to give operators permission to drill in the Allegheny National Forest while it conducts an environmental impact study there.

Southern Union Co. said its Southern Union Gas Services (SUGS) midstream business will construct a 200 MMcf/d gas processing plant and associated gathering, compression and treating facilities to serve growing production from the Avalon, Bone Spring and Wolfcamp plays of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

In what is becoming a standard give and take in Pennsylvania, the Marcellus Shale industry released a study last week showing how its economic importance in the state is growing and critics dismissed the findings as overstated.

A new bill introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly last week would give whistleblower protections to workers in the oil and gas industry. House Bill 1605, sponsored by state Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from Pittsburgh, would extend the 1986 Whistleblower Law to include employees of drilling companies and oilfield services companies. “This bill provides greater protection for our communities without imposing any new regulation on drillers,” Frankel wrote to members of the state House of Representatives in late April, searching for co-sponsors. “It simply protects individuals who report wrongdoing or waste to their employer or governmental authority, or who participate in an investigation, hearing or court action when asked.”