Nominations

President Trump intends to nominate Mark Christie, the current chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and Allison Clements, the founder and president of energy policy and strategy consulting firm Goodgrid LLC, to become FERC commissioners, the White House said Monday. Christie previously was president of the Organization of PJM States Inc. and served on…

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday approved four key energy nominations: Tony Clark, former chairman of the North Dakota Public Service Committee, to sit on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; FERC Commissioner John Norris for a full five-year term on the Commission ending mid-2017; Adam Sieminski, former chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank, to be administrator of the Energy Information Administration; and Marcilynn Burke to be assistant secretary of the Department of Interior with oversight of the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. Burke’s nomination was sent to the Senate floor for confirmation, despite the fact that all Republicans on the committee voted against it, a Republican aide said. He noted that a Republican hold could be placed on Burke’s nomination on the Senate floor.

A new tariff approved Thursday for Texas Gas Transmission (TGT) sets out an enhanced nominations service (ENS) with an additional 11 nomination cycles each gas day and interruptible (IT) bump times as short as one hour to serve the on-again, off-again power generation load.

A new tariff approved Thursday for Texas Gas Transmission (TGT) sets out an enhanced nominations service (ENS) with an additional 11 nomination cycles each gas day and interruptible (IT) bump times as short as one hour to serve the on-again, off-again power generation load.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing Wednesday (March 14) to consider multiple nominations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Interior Department. The nominees include Tony Clark, who currently is chairman of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, to be a FERC commissioner; John Norris for a second term at FERC; Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank, to head the EIA; and Marcilynn Burke to be an assistant secretary of the Interior.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead wrote the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, on Monday complaining that his state has yet to get a full response from EPA to questions it raised about the federal agency’s two test wells near Pavillion, WY.

Effective with Evening Cycle nominations (Cycle 2) for Wednesday’s gas day, Ruby Pipeline increased operationally available capacity for the Ruby West Constraint to 1,460 MMcf/d, which is the system’s total design capacity.

After accepting limited nominations for two cycles of Sunday’s gas day, Ruby Pipeline said based on current pipeline conditions and imbalance payback quantities, it would be able to increase operationally available capacity for Monday “in excess of firm contracted capacity starting with the Evening Nomination Cycle (Cycle 2) tonight [Monday].” The return to service in excess of firm contract quantities ended the related force majeure event effective for Monday, Ruby added. See the bulletin board for other details on the pipeline’s restoration of service following a system shutdown caused Dec. 10 by a block valve yard fire in a remote area of Utah (see Daily GPI, Dec. 13).

ANR said it has shut in the Contango Eugene Island 63/11 receipt point for pipeline repairs and is not accepting nominations there until further notice.