Hearing

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced Friday that Michael Krancer, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), will step down on April 15 and return to practice law in Philadelphia. But the decision to replace him on an interim basis with the governor’s deputy chief of staff is being derided by Krancer’s predecessor, John Hanger.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on April 9 to consider the nomination of Ernest Moniz to be secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE). Moniz would succeed current Energy Secretary Steven Chu (see Daily GPI, March 5). Moniz currently serves as science adviser in the administration and director of the MIT Energy Initiative. He is a familiar face to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where he has testified on a variety of energy issues. Moniz has a reputation of being supportive of natural gas development, calling it a “bridge fuel” even as he has called for more funding for renewable energy. In 2010 he co-authored an MIT study that concluded that gas would be a leader in reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the next several decades, mostly by replacing older, inefficient coal plants with combined-cycle gas generation.

President Obama Monday gave his official nod to nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz as nominee for secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), and to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air pollution official Gina McCarthy to head up the EPA.

While other stakeholders have been critical of California’s preliminary draft hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rules, two energy attorneys with the firm of K&L Gates consider the rules’ proposed protections for trade secrets to be adequate for shielding exploration and production (E&P) operators’ proprietary information tied to fracking.

With a Nov. 29 deadline quickly approaching, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has reportedly hired experts from three universities to conduct a health impact analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in the state.

In Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board will announce a decision on whether to allow a proposal by a midstream subsidiary of UGI Corp. to move forward at its next meeting on Sept. 4. UGI Energy Services Inc. wants to construct 27.4 miles of pipeline across Wyoming and Luzerne counties (see Shale Daily, Aug. 7). The balance of the project, 23.4 miles, would be a 24-inch diameter pipeline starting at the current terminus of UGI’s Auburn Pipeline in Wyoming and running southeast into Luzerne, with a new interconnection with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) at West Wyoming Borough. The proposed compressor station would have three units with about 200,000 Dth/d of capacity. UGI also proposes to build four miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline, which would run south from the Transco interconnect and enter the city of Wilkes-Barre, where it would connect to the natural gas distribution system operated by UGI Utilities Inc., another subsidiary.

Several environmental groups and citizens are suing the Village of Painted Post in Steuben County, NY, over a contract to sell some of its water supplies to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc for its Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in Tioga County, PA.

A ballot initiative to raise the Arkansas severance tax on natural gas production being promoted by former gas industry executive Sheffield Nelson recently drew a few more foes, according to the energy industry-backed anti-tax group Arkansans for Jobs & Affordable Energy (AJAE). The Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC), the Poultry Federation and the Northwest Arkansas Council recently signed on in opposition to the tax hike on producers. “…[O]ur association believes a natural gas severance tax increase would be harmful for Arkansas counties and for Arkansans,” said Chris Villines, executive director of the AAC.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday that 20 water wells in Dimock Township, PA — collectively its second round of water quality testing — did not reveal any signs of contamination from natural gas drilling.