Jersey

A Range Resources Corp. unit has signed on as an anchor customer for a new private pipeline system that would supply fresh water to natural gas producers drilling in the Marcellus Shale in north-central Pennsylvania.

New York legislators have sent Gov. Andrew Cuomo a bill intended to improve the state’s water management, using a permitting program to prevent “overconsumption” by large-scale users, which may include the energy industry.

Following through on his threat (see Shale Daily, May 31), New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the federal government Tuesday for not conducting a full environmental review of proposed regulations for Marcellus Shale development in the Delaware River Basin.

The Chesapeake Bay, long plagued by pollution from development across its 64,000-square-mile watershed, is showing “some encouraging signs of improvement,” but is still “dangerously out of balance” and needs to be protected from a variety of threats, including natural gas drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s (CBF) “2010 State of the Bay” report.

Mirant Corp. and RRI Energy Inc. last week said they agreed to combine in an all-stock “merger of equals” to create GenOn Energy, which would create the country’s second largest independent power producer (IPP) with 24,700 MW of capacity and a market capitalization of $3.1 billion.

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) President Frederick Butler of New Jersey appointed California Public Utilities Commissioner Timothy Simon and Arkansas Public Service Commissioner Colette Honorable to serve as co-vice chairs of NARUC’s natural gas committee. Committee members work with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. departments of Energy and Transportation.

Steckman Ridge LP, a joint venture of Spectra Energy and New Jersey Resources, has received approval from FERC to develop 12 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity in Northwest Pennsylvania to serve markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, the company said Monday.

PPL EnergyPlus, a seller of wholesale and retail electricity based in eastern Pennsylvania, began offering retail natural gas to commercial and industrial customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, the company said Tuesday.

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) and Exelon met with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) staff to discuss the status of their proposed merger and the companies’ settlement offer valued at $1.46 billion after the NJBPU said it concurred with a staff recommendation that staff not accept the proposal offered by Exelon and PSEG related to the merger.