Levels

The Northeast rejoined the overall market in recording mostly moderate losses Tuesday. Heat levels across most of the southern third of the U.S. are remaining somewhat onerous, but highs in the 80s or less continue to dampen cooling load.

Driven by the rise in oil prices and new technology, U.S. onshore drilling has returned to pre-recession levels, with the rig count nearing a 20-year high, according to researcher Headwaters Economics.

Driven by the rise in oil prices and new technology, U.S. onshore drilling has returned to pre-recession levels, with the rig count nearing a 20-year high, according to researcher Headwaters Economics.

As record water levels continue over an extended time period this year in the Pacific Northwest, the hydrolectric season has stretched into an eight-month-long period, producing a similarly long period in which natural gas-fired generation plants remain mostly idle, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Relatively moderate heat levels in the Mid-South and Northeast, along with mild to cool forecasts for Canada, the Pacific Northwest and sections of the Midwest, failed to prevent a large majority of locations from realizing small price gains Tuesday. However, inland California was beginning to join much of the desert Southwest in anticipating highs ranging from the mid 90s to more than 110, and the Rockies — while still fairly moderate — had predicted peak temperatures start to climb into the low 80s.

Westcoast implemented a systemwide high-linepack OFO Thursday with 10% tolerance for positive daily imbalances.

The number of rigs targeting oil and natural gas in U.S. tight sands and shale plays saw a significant drop during the week ending May 20, while oil and gas prices hovered in their recent comfort zones, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. is sitting atop snowpack and water levels more than 150% of normal, setting up the prospect for abundant hydroelectric supplies and less-than-normal natural gas-fired electric generation for its combination utility Avista Utilities. As a result, revenues were up and fuel costs down for the first quarter, Avista reported in a quarterly earnings conference call last Friday.

Elected officials at all levels of government in Pennsylvania should implement regulations to block gas extraction in “pristine places and locations near where people live or work,” said the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center. The group said it has documented well sites within two miles of more than 320 daycare facilities, 67 schools and nine hospitals in the state. PennEnvironment also called on lawmakers to strengthen clean water laws, “halt the use of toxic chemicals” in hydraulic fracturing and increase resources available to regulators. In addition, PennEnvironment called on the federal government to “end the special treatment for the gas industry and apply the nation’s core public health and environmental laws to gas extraction, just as it would regulate any potential threat to public health or the environment.”