Investigative

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) officials have hit back at the numbers and types of violations of natural gas pipeline survey and classification work that an investigative unit of the California regulatory commission has leveled against the combination utility.

A joint agency investigative report released last Wednesday on the Macondo well blowout and fatal explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig spread the blame for the disaster among BP plc, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron International Corp., but BP got the brunt of it.

A joint agency investigative report released on Wednesday of the April 2010 Macondo well blowout and fatal explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig spread the blame for the disaster among BP plc, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron International Corp., but BP got the brunt of it.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, has added the Interior Department to its high-risk list due to concerns over its management of oil and natural gas resources.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, is looking into the way the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may have bypassed some environmental reviews to issue oil and natural gas drilling permits across the West. One particular area of GAO’s inquiry involves how some natural gas drilling permits were issued to Bill Barrett Corp. in the environmentally sensitive Nine Mile Canyon area of Utah, officials said.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, is looking into the way the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may have bypassed some environmental reviews to issue oil and natural gas drilling permits across the West. One particular area of GAO’s inquiry involves how some natural gas drilling permits were issued to Bill Barrett Corp. in the environmentally sensitive Nine Mile Canyon area of Utah, officials said.

The General Accountability Office (GAO), the research and investigative arm of the Congress, has issued a report finding that actions by the FERC, CFTC and the Congress have resulted in reforms to privately published natural gas price indices to the point that industry stakeholders “in general, are reasonably confident in the short-term prices now reported by trade publications and the improved quality of overall information.”

The special California state Senate investigative committee last Thursday announced it will subpoena Enron Corp.’s former CEO Jeff Skilling and two other former executives from the company this week to appear at a hearing in Sacramento April 3. Following approval by the year-old Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation in the Wholesale Energy Market this week, the subpoenas are expected to be served Monday, according to a committee staff member.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said it will file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC within the next few weeks, challenging the decision of Bush and Cheney to withhold the documents on the grounds that it would encroach on the authority of the executive branch. This marks the first time the GAO will bring legal action against the executive branch to compel production of information and records.