Need

Pennsylvania lawmakers need to be held to their promise to pass “a substantial severance tax” on Marcellus Shale natural gas production, according to Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), which is planning a series of rallies across the state in support of a tax.

Natural gas utilities will need to achieve annual savings of 6% by 2020 under a new set of rules approved Tuesday by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). The state regulators want the utilities to greatly expand their energy efficiency programs and measure their effectiveness against percentage savings on retail energy sales each calendar year.

Citing the need to proceed cautiously on oil and natural gas activity in the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department plans to postpone until later this year public scoping meetings for the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the upcoming five-year (2012-2017) leasing plan.

Due to unscheduled maintenance at Mississippi River Transmission’s (MRT) Fountain Hill facilities, MRT said it will need to shut them down for a 24-hour period sometime between May 19 and May 21. During this period MRT will be unable to inject into storage at Unionville and may not schedule any volumes that result in a daily long position or accept any makeup of short positions. MRT also may not schedule IT, AOR or secondary firm transportation volumes to storage or allocate secondary firm transportation on a no-notice basis.

Citing the apparent trading irregularities of Amaranth Advisors LLC and large positions taken by the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) as evidence of the need for aggressive action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last Thursday voted out a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would set limits on speculative trading of exchange-traded futures and options contracts in major energy markets.

Looking to capitalize on the growing need for natural gas storage in the prolific Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, Valley Forge, PA-based UGI Corp. said Friday its UGI Central Penn Gas Inc. (UGI CPG) and UGI Storage Co. subsidiaries are conducting a binding open season for 14.7 Bcf of firm underground storage service from three existing storage fields.

Looking to capitalize on the growing need for natural gas storage in the prolific Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, Valley Forge, PA-based UGI Corp. said Friday its UGI Central Penn Gas Inc. (UGI CPG) and UGI Storage Co. subsidiaries are conducting a binding open season for 14.7 Bcf of firm underground storage service from three existing storage fields.

Citing the apparent trading irregularities of Amaranth Advisors LLC and large positions taken by the United States Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) as evidence of the need for action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday voted out a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would set limits on speculative trading of exchange-traded futures and options contracts in major energy markets.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Edward Markey on Tuesday said the bid by ExxonMobil Corp. to acquire XTO Energy Inc. “raises a number of issues” that need to be reviewed in congressional hearings next year.