Mark

Lawmakers in the Vermont House of Representatives were to vote Friday on a bill that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Green Mountain State and require regulators with the state Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) to submit a report by 2015 on the best ways to regulate the practice.

The majority of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale drilling law is just starting to go into effect, but two state lawmakers are already proposing tweaks, one small and one large.

As the price of gasoline edges nears the $4/gallon mark in much of the country and has surpassed it in some places on the West Coast, a group of senators Wednesday introduced legislation that calls on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to use its emergency powers to rein in speculation in the futures markets.

The last of Gov. Jerry Brown’s three appointments to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Mark Ferron, won confirmation from the California Senate to a six-year term that began last year. The five-member CPUC now has a full complement of regulators. Ferron, a former investment banker with Deutsche Bank, Salomon Brothers and Bank of America, brings a financial background to the regulatory panel. Prior to his appointment, Ferron was a senior partner at Silicon Valley Social Ventures and a board fellow of the New Teacher Center.

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. reported a 9% sequential increase in production for the fourth quarter and attributed the success to “three core liquids-rich growth assets in Texas.” In light of low prices for dry gas, the company has tweaked some of its drilling plans while it continues to high-grade liquids-rich drilling.

West Virginia has more taxes and fees on natural gas production than most of the 18 other gas-producing states included in an analysis prepared for a West Virginia Legislature subcommittee by the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research. However, it isn’t clear if taxes are hampering development of the state’s Marcellus Shale, the analysts said.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy said Wednesday it will elevate its current CFO Mark Snell to president, effective Oct. 1, and consolidate its natural gas infrastructure businesses into U.S. and international units. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) will no longer be a separate operating unit, a footnote to the fact that it is a waning part of the domestic gas marketplace.

Calling his company a “growth-oriented” utility, Sempra Energy CFO Mark Snell said the natural gas infrastructure part of Sempra’s business is being redefined and growing at a slower pace. Snell made these observations last Wednesday at the Barclays Capital CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York City.

Calling his company a “growth-oriented” utility, Sempra Energy CFO Mark Snell said the natural gas infrastructure part of Sempra’s business is being redefined and growing at a slower pace. Snell made these observations Wednesday at the Barclays Capital Energy-Power CEO Conference in New York City.