Illegal

Pennsylvania most likely won’t see a tax or fee on shale development this summer.

Two separate bills calling for a comprehensive study of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in North Carolina — a state where the practice is currently illegal — are expected to be sent to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue this week.

The wind industry accused the federal Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Monday of illegal and ill-advised moves in the face of record hydroelectric supplies this spring and summer, and it promised legal action to reverse the current operating decision by the Pacific Northwest’s major energy player.

Northern Natural Gas Co. has filed a federal lawsuit to take more than 9,100 acres in south-central Kansas so it may expand the boundaries of its underground Cunningham Storage Field.

Northern Natural Gas Co. last week filed a federal lawsuit to take more than 9,100 acres in south-central Kansas to expand the boundaries of its underground Cunningham Storage Field.

Facing a ballot measure by its opponents that it alleges is illegal, NorthernStar Natural Gas’s proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Columbia River in Oregon received county approval for upgrading its three-mile-long access road to the site as a last major local permitting milestone, the company announced. Bradwood Landing now looks to the final FERC environmental impact report expected around late June as its next major milestone, a Portland, OR-based spokesperson told NGI last Wednesday.

Facing a ballot measure by its opponents that it’s alleging is illegal, NorthernStar Natural Gas’s proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Columbia River in Oregon received county approval Monday for upgrading its three-mile-long access road to the site as a last major local permitting milestone, the company announced. Bradwood Landing now looks to the final FERC environmental impact report (EIR) expected around late June as its next major milestone, a Portland, OR-based spokesperson told NGI Wednesday.

Legendary Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison after pleading guilty in October to paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s energy regime in exchange for oil contracts in 2001 (see NGI, Oct. 8). Wyatt had faced up to 24 months in prison. Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued the sentence. Wyatt had earlier agreed to forfeit $11 million as part of his plea agreement. Wyatt pleaded guilty in October four weeks into a criminal trial and shortly before prosecutors were to complete their case. Wyatt, who founded Coastal Corp., which later merged with El Paso Corp. (see NGI, May 8, 2000),was indicted in late 2005 with five other individuals. He had faced up to 70 years in prison if he had been convicted on all five counts of his indictment. Wyatt had also been charged with conducting financial transactions with Iraq, which was an enemy nation in 2001, and for violating a U.S. embargo with Iraq.

Legendary Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty in October to paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s energy regime in exchange for oil contracts in 2001 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 2). Wyatt had faced up to 24 months in prison.