Municipality

The Ohio House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of an energy bill that also creates new rules for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. The bill is to be sent to Gov. John Kasich for his signature.

Seven Pennsylvania municipalities filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a new state law which gives shale gas-rich counties the ability to impose a 15-year impact fee on unconventional gas wells, claiming that it supersedes local authority over drilling and violates the state and U.S. Constitution.

Range Resources Corp. has filed suit against a Pennsylvania township, alleging that the municipality violated state meetings law by not giving proper notice before making sweeping, prohibitive changes to its Marcellus Shale drilling ordinance.

Range Resources Corp. has filed suit against a Pennsylvania township, alleging that the municipality violated state meetings law by not giving proper notice before making sweeping, prohibitive changes to its Marcellus Shale drilling ordinance.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks answers, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said the blowout of one of its Marcellus Shale wells in northeast Pennsylvania is now under control.

With the withdrawal of pipeline projects upstream of Millennium in Canada by some of the pipeline’s sponsors, the Town of Cortlandt, NY, has asked FERC to hold the application for the 442-mile U.S. pipeline in abeyance until the project’s sponsors can explain the situation.

With the withdrawal of pipeline projects upstream of Millennium in Canada by some of the pipeline’s sponsors, the Town of Cortlandt, NY, has asked FERC to hold the application for the 442-mile U.S. pipeline in abeyance until the project’s sponsors can explain the situation.

Unitil Corp. said yesterday it executed its first aggregated onlinenatural gas transaction for a municipality, the Village of Ilion,NY. Usource, a service of Unitil Corp., is an internet-based energyauction service that caters to customers in Pennsylvania, New York andNew England. Usource’s customers include MI Energy, LLC, the New YorkCity Housing Authority and major industrial firms in the region (seeDaily GPI, March 28).

An Arizona municipality, which seeks to start up its own gasdistribution system, has accused an out-of-state distributor ofhiding behind its Hinshaw status to justify its refusal totransport interstate gas for resale to the municipal’s potentialcustomers. Without the distributor’s transportation link, themunicipal says its dream of its own system will fizzle. Thedistributor, on the other hand, contends that its denial of transportation service is strictly a business decision.