Joined

Utilities and state regulators have joined nuclear industry scientists throughout the United States in studying events unfolding at Japan’s badly damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant complex.

Encana Corp. has joined its Horn River producer peers Apache Corp. and EOG Resources Inc. in the Kitimat liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal project on the west coast of central British Columbia (BC) and its associated gas pipeline. Encana is taking a 30% stake in the project, which will target Asian markets with western Canadian gas supplies.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, joined by leaders in the natural gas and chemical industries, announced last week the formation of the Marcellus to Manufacturing Task Force, intended to harness the business opportunities surrounding the development of the Marcellus Shale.

Former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Hanger has joined the Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott law firm in Harrisburg, PA. Hanger will support the firm’s practices in the areas of energy, utility and environment, concentrating in alternative energy, clean transportation infrastructure, energy efficiency, competitive energy markets and smartgrid, according to the firm. Hanger, a former CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Duke University. He left DEP last month after a tenure of more than two years during which activity in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale mushroomed.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, joined by leaders in the natural gas and chemical industries, announced Tuesday the formation of the Marcellus to Manufacturing Task Force, intended to harness the business opportunities surrounding the development of the Marcellus Shale.

Former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary John Hanger has joined the Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott law firm in Harrisburg, PA. Hanger will support the firm’s practices in the areas of energy, utility and environment, concentrating in alternative energy, clean transportation infrastructure, energy efficiency, competitive energy markets and smartgrid, according to the firm. Hanger, a former CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Duke University. He left DEP last month after a tenure of more than two years during which activity in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale mushroomed.

Rosetta Resources Inc. will spend about 90% of its 2011 capital budget of $360 million on the liquids-rich window of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the Houston-based independent said. Spending will be funded from cash flow and planned asset sales in the Denver-Julesburg Basin and California.

The former chief of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), who was ousted in October by Gov. David Paterson, has joined an environmental conservation group that has questioned the state’s ability to regulate shale gas extraction.

Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) member Elizabeth Ames Jones on Friday joined a chorus of those who are blasting the President Obama’s decision not to open new areas in the offshore to exploration.