Mass

Pennsylvania is on its way to officially charging a fee for Marcellus Shale drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950 on Monday evening, giving shale gas-rich counties in the state the ability to impose a 15-year impact fee on unconventional gas wells; now it’s up to the locals.

A New York City-based law firm specializing in mass tort litigation is suing Anschutz Exploration Corp. and its contractors on behalf of nine families that claim their drinking water was contaminated by the company’s gas exploration and drilling activities in Horseheads, NY.

Responding to a mass of concerns by opponents and critics, FERC last Thursday attached 109 safety conditions and mitigation measures to its order approving the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated sendout pipeline to serve rising natural gas demand in the Pacific Northwest. However, FERC Commissioners said a number of hurdles still would have to be overcome, raising doubts about whether the facilities will ever be built.

Responding to a mass of concerns by opponents and critics, FERC Thursday attached 109 safety conditions and mitigation measures to its order approving the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and associated sendout pipeline to serve rising natural gas demand in the Pacific Northwest. However, even FERC Commissioners raised doubts about whether the facilities will ever be built.

With an arctic air mass spreading its thermometer level-dropping impact into the Northeast and most of the South, prices were flat to about 80 cents higher at most points Wednesday. However, only the Northeast saw major increases; elsewhere, gains were limited to about a quarter and were mostly in single digits.

A large majority of the cash market was able to rebound Monday as a mass of arctic air, which The Weather Channel (TWC) characterized as bitterly cold, was due to move into the Plains and western Midwest behind a cold front Tuesday. A less severe cold front was in Tuesday’s forecast for the South.

With an arctic air mass poised to deliver what The Weather Channel called “some of the coldest weather the region has experienced in a year or two” into the Northeast Thursday, several citygates there saw huge spikes in Wednesday trading. Transco’s Zone 6-New York City pool saw a top quote of $30 as the point’s average soared by more than $11 to just over $20.

All points were on the same price page Wednesday, rising by large amounts in nearly all cases as a polar air mass that had already occupied the Midwest and Plains threatened to spread its heating load influence into parts of the South and Northeast. And although the West will still be mild to warm in the desert Southwest and inland portions of the West Coast states, it has its share of weather-related demand in the Rockies, where Denver is expected to see a second straight low in the high 20s Thursday.

Prices soared at virtually all points Monday after a frigid mass of air from Canada had invaded much of the U.S. and sent temperatures plunging, even in the previously mild South. Some Northeast citygates led the price climb with gains around a dollar or more, and most other points rose by at least half a dollar.