Measure

In an attempt to install more of a risk-based approach to state inspection programs for the oil and natural gas industry, Colorado lawmakers are considering new requirements in a measure (SB 202) that passed out of the state Senate Wednesday on a 22-11 vote. The bill now goes to the lower House for consideration.

In an article Tuesday, the Post looked to the future with a report, “European industry flocks to U.S. to take advantage of cheaper gas,” while the Times complained Monday that the “Jobs Boom Built on Cheap Energy Has Yet to Appear.”

Supporters of an “environmental bill of rights” charter amendment in Mansfield, OH, prevailed at the polls last week, but opponents of the measure fear it could be used beyond its intended purpose — to possibly block wastewater injection wells — and applied to other types of business.

A Dow Chemical Co. executive said he believes the chemical industry will need several additional Bcf/d of natural gas in as little as two-years’ time, when a long list of petrochemical plant projects begin to come online. It’s a demand that should be easy to meet, he said, as long as the United States hasn’t given away its competitive advantage in the marketplace — a gift from shale gas — through the undisciplined export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A research team led by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is collaborating with nine natural gas producers on a major field study to measure methane emissions at onshore gas well sites, about which only a handful of empirical data exist.

Naturally occurring methane in New York water wells could serve as a baseline to measure the quality of the water supply if and when natural gas drilling is expanded and high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is allowed, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said in a new report. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce any day a decision about whether to allow more gas drilling to proceed.

Despite earlier promulgations that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be performed safely, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have legalized the practice and begun the process for its regulation.

The House Monday overwhelmingly passed two bills that would exempt commercial end-users from margin requirements and ease regulations for affiliate transactions.

With only a few days left before the Pennsylvania General Assembly recesses for the year, some groups are calling on lawmakers to pass an impact fee on Marcellus Shale development now, while others are criticizing the bills currently on the table.