Municipal

Low natural gas prices have hit Pennsylvania, where deep-shale drilling fees collected last year fell about 3% from 2011, according to state data.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has undertaken five case studies in the Marcellus, Barnett and Bakken shales and the Raton Basin on the impact of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water sources as part of its multi-year review of the well stimulation technique used in unconventional plays.

Macquarie Group has priced its first U.S. prepaid natural gas bond transaction for which it is the gas supplier. The transaction will provide Texas Municipal Gas Acquisition and Supply Corp. III (TexGas III) with a 20-year supply from Macquarie. TexGas III has sold and will issue fixed-rate U.S. dollar-denominated serial bonds maturing annually from December 2013 to December 2032 with annual yields of 0.75-4.05%. The bonds have a total par value of about $1.4 billion and were issued at a premium for total proceeds of $1.5 billion. They are rated “A3” by Moody’s Investors Service and “BBB” by Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services. Macquarie will supply 405 Bcf of gas over the term of the deal, which is subject to approval by the Texas Attorney General.

A group of municipal gas utilities has called on Congress to pass legislation to reform Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) so that shippers can receive retroactive refunds for over-collections of rates by interstate natural gas pipelines. The request was accompanied by a recent study estimating that pipelines over-recovered more than $4 billion from their customers over a five-year period.

A group of municipal gas utilities has called on Congress to pass legislation to reform Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) so that shippers can receive retroactive refunds for over-collections of rates by interstate natural gas pipelines. Its request was accompanied by a recent study estimating that pipelines over-recovered more than $4 billion from their customers over a five-year period.

Coordinated regulation of oil and gas development is needed in Colorado, but no new laws are needed to achieve such an approach, according to a draft report from a task force created earlier this year by Gov. John Hickenlooper. The task force is scheduled to issue its final report to Hickenlooper and state lawmakers Wednesday.

Exasperated with being at the center of a pitched debate over the safety of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), elected officials in Dimock Township, PA, voted unanimously Monday evening to decline an offer by the city of Binghamton, NY about 30 miles away, to deliver potable water supplies to some of the town’s residents.

More than two months after a judge ruled that its ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing (fracking) was illegal, the city of Morgantown, WV, has decided to table, not outright rescind, the measure as it looks for other ways to restrict the practice.

In attempting to chart an uneasy future away from coal-fired generation and toward more renewable resources, the nation’s largest municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), remains highly dependent on natural gas to fuel its power plants, LADWP officials told a citizens meeting last Thursday.