Option

California regulators provided an option to smart meters — both gas and electric — for San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) customers last Thursday, mirroring action take earlier in the year by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) (see Daily GPI, Feb. 2). SCE customers who don’t want an advanced digital meter can keep their current meter or one that was at their location prior to the installation of a wireless smart meter. Similarly, SDG&E customers who do not want a smart gas or electric meter can choose to have the analog meters. SCE said it supported the decision by state regulators and will “respond quickly to customers choosing to opt out.” Separately, one of the state’s two large public sector utilities, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, said it has nearly completed the installation of 600,000 smart meters and an automated electric metering infrastructure.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. has signed a lease with Bayer AG to drill Marcellus Shale gas wells on 1,400 gross acres in New Martinsville, a site that is being touted as a possible location for an ethane cracker in West Virginia.

Wyoming officials who make up the state’s Board of Land Commissioners on Thursday unanimously (4-0) issued new rules on natural gas flaring that include the option of charging operators royalties on flared gas. This reverses the past practice of allowing flaring without royalties.

The governing board of the Port of Brownsville, TX, has approved a lease option for 500 acres of port property for the potential development of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction and export facility by Gulf Coast LNG Export LLC.

With nuclear power generation being phased out and coal considered too inflexible, natural gas as a source of electricity generation is drawing increased interest in Germany to balance its national grid, which is rapidly moving toward total reliance on renewable sources for power generation.

In an effort to ensure that air around Marcellus and Utica shale production sites is safe and to provide the shale industry “with the most efficient option to get operations up and running,” the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) said it is creating a new general permit.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) filed an emergency rule regarding Marcellus Shale drilling on Monday, following through on Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s executive order from July mandating regulatory changes.

Arkansas regulators Wednesday afternoon established a permanent moratorium area for any new drilling wastewater injection wells in an area of the Fayetteville Shale where four such wells are thought to have contributed to earthquakes.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to spend millions for repairs to roads in four counties in the West Virginia Panhandle, in order to mitigate damage done to the roads by trucks hauling equipment and water to its wells sites in the region.