Issues

While trying to deflect regulatory attorneys’ allegations of “significant safety issues” with one filing to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Monday, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) separately asked the CPUC to allow it to raise pressure on three key natural gas transmission pipeline links on the San Francisco peninsula. It also submitted a monthly report indicating that it is nearing the completion of the hydrostatic testing of top-priority pipe segments in highly populated areas.

ConocoPhillips is facing some takeaway issues for its liquids in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, but that’s only a minor blip on the screen and has done nothing to reduce the company’s enthusiasm for unconventional plays, executives said Wednesday.

Assuming the can handle any antitrust issues that might come up, Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) and El Paso Corp. are heading toward a deal that would create a midstream and pipeline behemoth with thousands of miles of pipelines touching supply basins all over North America.

Pennsylvanians are narrowly split on whether the benefits of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) are worth the potential risks, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics (MCAP) at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA.

California regulators unanimously agreed last Thursday that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) can resume higher operating pressure in its receipt point of natural gas supplies at the California-Arizona border at Topock. Regulators called for “stricter utility accountability” in pipe pressure tests. Separately on Friday five new pipeline measures were signed into law.

Pennsylvania policymakers should “watch the rigs” as they make decisions, Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) President Kathryn Klaber told a Pittsburgh audience Thursday.

While environmentalists and some citizens are opposed to the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to develop shale natural gas, experts — one of whom has studied fracking for more than 41 years — told a Senate committee the practice does not negatively impact drinking water or the environment.

Because the House and Senate pipeline safety reauthorization bills are nearly identical on critical issues and there appears to be strong bipartisan support for them, the legislation has a good chance of clearing Congress this year, officials with a major pipeline group said last Monday.

Because the House and Senate pipeline safety reauthorization bills are nearly identical on critical issues and there appears to be strong bipartisan support for them, the legislation has a good chance of clearing Congress this year, officials with a major pipeline group said Monday.