Jersey

New Jersey has appealed a judge’s decision last month that struck down a Board of Public Utilities (BPU) plan to have ratepayers subsidize the cost to build new natural gas-fired power plants.

Citing “intense pressure” from industry and its allies in Congress, a New Jersey congressman said Wednesday that the Interior Department appears to be making its proposed rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas wells on public lands weaker, not stronger.

Of the estimated 33,000 natural gas customers who were impacted by Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) reported on Wednesday that it had restored service to about 18,000 meters on Long Beach Island in Monmouth County and parts of Ocean County. However, before gas can flow to the meters, residents have to return to their homes, have their electricity restored and hire qualified technicians to ensure the equipment is safe to operate, said a NJNG spokesman. He said it was a “little harder to quantify” how much of the distribution system’s infrastructure, which was damaged by Sandy, would have to be replaced.

The latest word from New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) is that the entire natural gas distribution system on the barrier island has been compromised, officials of hurricane-ravaged Seaside Heights, NJ, told residents of the borough on its website.

Hurricane Sandy appears to have posed a minimal disruption to oil and gas companies operating in the Marcellus Shale.

Spectra Energy Corp. has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin construction on the New Jersey-New York Expansion Project, a 20-mile expansion of the Texas Eastern Transmission and Algonquin Gas Transmission interstate pipeline systems, which would provide an additional 800 MMcf/d of transportation capacity into the region. The Commission approved the project, which is to begin service in late 2013, in May (see NGI, May 28). Spectra has to implement an archaeological monitoring plan for the Big Inch and Little Big Inch pipelines, among other requirements.

Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission LP is holding a nonbinding open season through July 31 for firm capacity on its Uniontown to Gas City (U2GC) Expansion Project, which offers shippers a new firm path from the Marcellus Shale in west Uniontown, PA, to the pipeline’s existing interconnect with Panhandle Eastern Pipeline near Gas City, IN.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) agreed Thursday to a request by New York that any water withdrawal applications for natural gas development in the state be postponed until the Empire State completes its environmental review of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The House Agriculture Committee has subpoenaed Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global Holdings Ltd. and former governor of New Jersey, to attend a hearing Thursday to explain the events that led up to the company’s Oct. 31 bankruptcy and the disappearance of an estimated $1.2 billion in customer funds.