Oregon

The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) cut rates for the three major investor-owned natural gas utilities in the state, responding to the continuing low wholesale prices for gas. The new rates take effect Thursday. Portland, OR-based NW Natural, which separately received a small general rate hike, its first in 10 years (see Daily GPI, Oct. 31), will cut its rates by 6.9%, or about $4.36/month for a typical residential customer. Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities customers will see rates drop 7.7%, or on average about $4.78/month for residential customers. MDU Resources Group’s Kennewick, WA-based Cascade Natural Gas Corp. rates were cut 17.3%, or a decrease on average of $9.79/month for a residential customer. A purchased gas adjustment allows the PUC to have the gas utilities adjust their rates up or down annually to reflect changes in the average price of gas supplies the utilities purchase on the interstate market.

Portland, OR-based NW Natural received less than one-third of the general rate increase it had been seeking as the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Monday approved an $8.7 million annual increase, or 1.28%, for the state’s largest natural gas utility.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) to “understand the criteria” used to determinate whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to a non-Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries “are in the public interest.”

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the leading Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday urged President Obama to use his power under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 to restrict the export of natural gas, coal, petroleum products and petrochemical feedstocks. Markey earlier in the year introduced two bills to block liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the leading Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday urged President Obama to use his power under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 to restrict the export of natural gas, coal, petroleum products and petrochemical feedstocks. Markey earlier in the year introduced two bills to block liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15).

The effects of low natural gas prices are spreading to marine transportation and other potential industrial expansion in the Pacific Northwest, according to officials in the Oregon-based Northwest Gas Association (NWGA) and local media reports.

The project manager for the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the south-central coast of Oregon told NGI late Monday that he was surprised by FERC’s move earlier in the day to vacate the project’s 2009 conditional approval to build an LNG import terminal and connecting 230-mile transmission pipeline (see Daily GPI, April 17). The project had expanded into a proposed import-export facility.

Backers of the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the south-central coast of Oregon have filed an application with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeking approval to export LNG to nonfree-trade nations. Backers want to develop a combination import-export facility at Coos Bay, along with a natural gas-fired baseload and peaking generation plant. Jordan Cove already has conditional approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an LNG import terminal and connecting 230-mile transmission pipeline. It now has on file with FERC a proposal to build liquefaction export facilities alongside the regasification import facilities. Jordan Cove is backed by a group headed by Fort Chicago Energy Partners (see Daily GPI, March 21).

Backers of the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) import-export project along the south-central Oregon coast at Coos Bay are moving ahead with necessary federal regulatory filings in March while monitoring the decline in U.S. natural gas prices and what that will mean for both domestic and global markets.