Hill

Due to unscheduled maintenance at Mississippi River Transmission’s (MRT) Fountain Hill facilities, MRT said it will need to shut them down for a 24-hour period sometime between May 19 and May 21. During this period MRT will be unable to inject into storage at Unionville and may not schedule any volumes that result in a daily long position or accept any makeup of short positions. MRT also may not schedule IT, AOR or secondary firm transportation volumes to storage or allocate secondary firm transportation on a no-notice basis.

Several major energy groups, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Edison Electric Institute, attended a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday where three senators involved in crafting climate change and energy legislation presented “their thinking” on the issues, but were short on details.

Several major energy groups, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Edison Electric Institute, attended a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday where three senators involved in crafting climate change and energy legislation presented “their thinking” on the issues, but were short on details.

Despite some optimistic talk in early 2009, Capital Hill lawmakers were never able to bring energy and climate change legislation to a final vote, and the bill — or bills — may not make it to the finish line again this year.

Despite some optimistic talk in early 2009, Capital Hill lawmakers were never able to bring energy and climate change legislation to a final vote, and the bill — or bills — may not make it to the finish line again this year.

Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Dan Boren (D-OK) are laying the groundwork for a bipartisan Congressional Natural Gas Caucus to focus greater attention on natural gas on Capitol Hill.

Without the addition of an odorant, natural gas has almost no scent. Until recently gas producers had almost no voice on Capitol Hill. However, repeated success at unlocking gas from unconventional plays has them speaking up for policies that would make markets for their invisible and heretofore largely ignored fuel.

Without the addition of an odorant, natural gas has almost no scent. Until recently gas producers had almost no voice on Capitol Hill. However, repeated success at unlocking gas from unconventional plays has them speaking up for policies that would make markets for their invisible and heretofore largely ignored fuel.

Two critical issues emerged last week in Capitol Hill debate over futures, over-the-counter (OTC) and derivatives regulatory reform as lawmakers heard witnesses proposing mandatory clearing of all OTC contracts — or not; and the merging of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — or not. Senate committee debate also took a side trip into new charges of possible excessive speculation driving energy commodity prices higher.