Panel

New Brunswick should require a portion of any natural gas found in its shale plays be set aside for use in the province and should put in place a water use strategy for the shale gas industry, but it should not place a moratorium on the industry, according to a report by Louis LaPierre, a professor emeritus in biology at the University of Moncton.

Shying away from any political observations on what a presidential change in Washington, DC, might bring, speakers in keynote addresses and panel discussions focused on financial and environmental regulations, shale developments and future pricing as the key drivers in the natural gas industry at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago, held Sept. 10-12.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected by 2-1 an appeal by Utah producers and several counties to uphold an Obama administration decision nearly four years ago to withdraw 77 oil and natural gas leases that had been sold at the end of the George W. Bush administration.

A special state appeal panel plans to rule in September which of two competing proposals would be authorized to build an 80-mile-long natural gas pipeline to Maine’s state capital, Augusta, and the surrounding Kennebec Valley. The chosen pipeline would bring natural gas to the area for the first time.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 2-1 on Monday to vacate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) disapproval of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) Flexible Permits Program.

Varying levels of support and caution regarding a national shift to increased use of natural gas vehicles (NGV) were offered Tuesday from a panel of five experts testifying at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Experts and the senators alike shied away from calling for reconsideration of national legislation to boost NGVs.

Safety starts at the top of any organization, and the proof of that can be found in the wake of a number of infrastructure failures in recent years, a panel of experts said at a conference Tuesday convened by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco.

A vote by an Oklahoma Senate panel to refund $150 million of an estimated $294 million in tax breaks denied to oil and gas drillers over the past two years is “counter productive” to the state’s efforts to improve its economy, according to the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA).

A vote by an Oklahoma Senate panel to refund $150 million of an estimated $294 million in tax breaks denied to oil and gas drillers over the past two years is “counter productive” to the state’s efforts to improve its economy, according to the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA).