Organizations

Natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale over the next two decades could impact the state’s forests and alter several thousand acres of habitat, The Nature Conservancy said Monday in a study.

Federal officials, utility workers, emergency response teams and nonprofit volunteer organizations descended on a normally quiet residential neighborhood in a San Francisco suburb Friday working their way deliberately through the rubble from a major natural gas transmission pipeline explosion and fire that destroyed dozens of homes, killed at least four residents and left more than 50 people injured, eight critically. Identifying the cause of the catastrophe, however, appeared to be out of reach until the water and power infrastructures in the immediate area were stabilized.

A coalition of more than 25 environment, conservation and advocacy organizations last Thursday sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee requesting information about whether service companies broke the law when they allegedly injected diesel fuel during the hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) processes to produce shale natural gas.

A coalition of more than 25 environment, conservation and advocacy organizations Thursday sent letters to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee requesting information about whether service companies broke the law when they allegedly injected diesel fuel during the hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) processes to produce shale natural gas.

Sparked by reports from utility consumer organizations and a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) en banc hearing on the issue the previous day, the state’s major investor-owned utilities (IOU) Thursday agreed to stop any customer service shutoffs at least through the rest of the year.

Following FERC queries as to the role in their organizations of two former traders who pleaded guilty in 2006 to attempted natural gas price manipulation while employed by other marketing companies, Vista Energy Trading LP (VET) has withdrawn its FERC application for market-based rate authority while Vista Energy Marketing LP (VEM) has structured its operations to conform to a consent order restricting the market activity of the traders (see Daily GPI, March 2).

National organizations representing energy consumers — large and small — urged Congress Monday not to mandate a national approach to push more energy-saving measures. Rather they want states to have the flexibility of varying their approaches to energy efficiency. The national association of state regulators also supports this state-focused approach.

NorthernStar Natural Gas Friday delivered nearly 800 supporter postcards to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski as part of a two-month campaign to rally labor organizations, families and small businesses in support of its plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Bradwood Landing on the Oregon side of the Columbia River just east of where it meets the Pacific Ocean. A total of 1,460 cards have been collected during the past two months, the company said.

A group of environmental organizations has filed an appeal challenging a federal judge’s ruling against the Clinton administration-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR), saying it does not believe RACR was illegally promulgated. If it stands, the decision could open millions of acres of western land to development.