Houses

A sweeping pipeline safety bill backed by industry and safety advocates alike passed both houses of Congress last week and will be sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill into law before the end of the year.

A short-term continuing resolution (CR), which both houses of Congress were expected to vote out Tuesday, will provide additional funding to states for low-income energy customers.

Victory for Republican candidate Tom Corbett in the race for governor of Pennsylvania and the replacement of split leadership in the legislature with the GOP takeover of both houses may be the death knell for a natural gas severance tax in the state — or not.

Joint federal-state open houses and scoping hearings will be held Wednesday and Thursday at two onshore interconnection points for NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc.’s proposed Clearwater Port offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal project.

California’s energy policy committees in the lower house Assembly and Senate moved three energy bills on to their houses’ respective appropriations committees following action Monday and Tuesday. Included is a solar water heating bill designed to make a concerted run at displacing natural gas-fired water heating, which is the most common source of water heating in the state (see Daily GPI, April 25).

On Nov. 8 — after election returns showed Democrats will take control of both houses of Congress — many in the oil and gas industry likely heard the windfall profits tax bogeyman knocking on the door.

On Nov. 8 — after election returns showed Democrats will take control of both houses of Congress — many in the oil and gas industry likely heard the windfall profits tax bogeyman knocking on the door.

In preparation for a filing to FERC this fall, Guardian Pipeline, LLC is holding a series of four open houses this week along the proposed route for its 110-mile, $220-240 million extension of an existing Illinois-Wisconsin line to the Green Bay, WI, area. The meetings started Monday in Green Bay and end Thursday in Whitewater.

With May natural gas futures prices comfortably trading above $7/MMBtu, some analysts and investment houses are revising some of their projections for the energy industry in 2005. Last week, analysts with Merrill Lynch released their latest commentary, in which they revised commodity price estimates as well as exploration and production (E&P) company earnings estimates.