Negotiators

A $28 billion 2010-11 state budget was passed last Wednesday by Pennsylvania legislators but a severance tax on natural gas drilling, which budget negotiators agreed to in principle, was not included in the bill. Instead, Pennsylvania House and Senate members agreed to enact a severance tax by Oct. 1 to take effect by Jan. 1.

A $28 billion 2010-11 state budget was passed late Wednesday by Pennsylvania legislators but a severance tax on natural gas drilling, which budget negotiators agreed to in principle, was not included in the bill. Instead, Pennsylvania House and Senate members agreed to enact a severance tax by Oct. 1 to take effect by Jan. 1.

House and Senate negotiators took the report on sweeping financial regulatory reform back into conference Tuesday to make adjustments to obtain the 60 votes needed to head off a filibuster in the Senate.

Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill are putting the finishing touches on a final energy bill that lawmakers could take up as early as this week, congressional aides said.

Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill are putting the finishing touches on a final energy bill that lawmakers could take up as early as next week, congressional aides are reporting.

Out of deference to the chief Senate negotiators on the energy bill, Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, President Bush will sign the sweeping energy bill into law on Monday (Aug. 8) at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM.

Noting it has “three teams” of negotiators talking to Russia’s Gazprom, Sempra Energy divulged during a first-quarter earnings conference call Wednesday that it is exploring power generation and energy marketing deals with the gas producer in addition to processing some of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) through one or more North American receiving terminals.

Noting it has “three teams” of negotiators talking to Russia’s Gazprom, Sempra Energy divulged during a first-quarter earnings conference call Wednesday that it is exploring power generation and energy marketing deals with the gas producer in addition to processing some of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) through one or more North American receiving terminals.

Congressional negotiators reached a deal Thursday on a $2.6 trillion budget for fiscal 2006 that would, among other things, clear the way for oil and natural gas drilling on the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).