Mounting

Elected officials in Cecil Township, PA, voted Monday to have the township solicitor look into mounting a legal challenge to Pennsylvania’s new Marcellus Shale law on the grounds that it usurps local zoning authority.

Congressional Republicans are facing mounting pressure from the White House to rescind oil and natural gas tax breaks in a deal aimed at reducing the federal deficit and raising the debt ceiling. Producers say they plan to fight to retain the tax breaks, but they concede that it won’t be easy if the repeal of industry tax deductions is part of a “grand bargain” to cut the deficit.

Congressional Republicans are facing mounting pressure from the White House to rescind oil and natural gas tax breaks in a deal aimed at reducing the federal deficit. Producers say they plan to fight to retain the tax breaks, but they concede that it won’t be easy if the repeal of industry tax deductions is part of a “grand bargain” to cut the deficit.

At the outset of June the indicators are mounting that the water supply for hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest will continue at record levels and the amount of natural gas needed for power generation will continue to decline.

At the outset of June the indicators are mounting that water in the Pacific Northwest will continue at record levels and the amount of natural gas needed in thermal electric generation will continue to decline.

Questions are mounting regarding Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) overall maintenance and repair of its natural gas transmission pipeline system going into the second week of investigation following the pipeline blast that killed at least four people, leveled or badly damaged up to 50 homes and devastated a wider area of more than 300 homes that were evacuated for days following the Sept. 9 tragedy (see Daily GPI, Sept. 13).

With concerns mounting about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on water supplies, New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey last week vowed to aggressively push to close a legislative loophole that exempts the drilling practice from regulation under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

With concerns mounting about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on water supplies, New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey Wednesday vowed to aggressively push to close a legislative loophole that exempts the drilling practice from regulation under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). If the legislation passes, it could be a game-changer for the natural gas industry, because nine out of every 10 gas wells use the process, a producer told NGI.

With management trained on a bevy of exploration opportunities in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and its mounting success onshore in the Barnett Shale and Midcontinent, Devon Energy Corp.’s announcement last week to put its West African oil and gas assets on the market appeared to clarify the independent’s optimism about North American prospects.