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A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) can’t refuse to give operators permission to drill in the Allegheny National Forest while it conducts an environmental impact study there.

Rescuers on Friday were attempting to reach a life raft containing a 10-member crew that was forced to abandon ship in the fury of Tropical Storm (TS) Nate in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Rescuers on Friday were attempting to reach a life raft containing a 10-member crew that was forced to abandon ship in the fury of Tropical Storm (TS) Nate in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Geokinetics Inc. said three of its workers and seven contractors had been aboard the Trinity II to support an ocean bottom cable project in the Bay of Campeche. The company said the storm disabled the ship Thursday and the crew was last seen boarding a life raft. Houston-based Geokinetics, which performs seismic testing for the oil and gas industry, said rescuers were attempting to reach the crew but were hampered by the inclement weather. “The safety and welfare of our employees is paramount and we are coordinating with maritime authorities to expedite the rescue effort as we continue to gather the facts,” said Geokinetics CEO Richard Miles. Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), said it had dispatched two ships to search for the workers off the coast of Tabasco state.

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to issue a final report Tuesday on the fatal natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno, CA, last year that killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood. However, ahead of the report San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Friday proposed a multi-year modernization plan designed to make its natural gas transmission pipeline system one of the safest in the country.

Pennsylvania should create a registry to monitor the health of state residents and search for potential health impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling, said Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Eli Avila.

New York legislators have sent Gov. Andrew Cuomo a bill intended to improve the state’s water management, using a permitting program to prevent “overconsumption” by large-scale users, which may include the energy industry.

In the wake of a well blowout last month in the Marcellus Shale, a Pennsylvania Senate committee has approved a bill (SB 995) that would require companies to provide to state and local authorities detailed emergency contact information for all of their wells in the state.

Anthony Eggert was appointed by California Gov. Jerry Brown to the five-member California Energy Commission (CEC), a position he held last year in former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration. An engineer by background who previously worked for the California Fuel Cell Partnership and for Ford Motor Co., Eggert was a senior policy advisor at the California Air Resources Board from 2007 to early 2010. The appointment requires confirmation by the state Senate, but appointees can serve for up to a year without confirmation. Eggert’s appointment fills out the CEC, which had been operating in recent months with only four members.

Removing a moratorium on new drilling in Pennsylvania state forests is not a priority, the acting secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) told a state Senate committee during confirmation hearings earlier this month.