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From coast to coast, natural gas as a transportation fuel emerged in several parts of the nation this month, addressing both the production of fleet vehicles and the fueling infrastructure needed to sustain an uptick in fleets switching to natural gas. New milestones were reported in the West, Midwest and East.

The Bakken play in North Dakota and parts of Montana holds a potential 24 billion boe in oil, liquids and natural gas, according to the CEO of one of the Bakken’s pioneering independent exploration and production (E&P) companies.

All California operators of intrastate natural gas transmission pipelines must prepare implementation plans to pressure test or replace all pipeline segments that have not been tested or lack sufficient records verifying such tests, according to a proposed decision released last Tuesday by Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Maribeth Bushey.

Marcellus Shale operators in Pennsylvania are familiar with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), the interstate regulatory agencies that manage water resources in eastern and central Pennsylvania, but currently don’t have to deal with a similar organization in the western half of the state. However, that may soon change.

April began Friday with fairly heavy snowfalls in upper New England, the eastern Midwest and even parts of the Pacific Northwest, according to The Weather Channel (TWC). But with warming trends due over the weekend, the belief that wintry weather was on its last legs except for remaining subfreezing patches in Canada resulted in softness being slightly dominant in a mixed cash market that was mostly flat or close to it.

The New Mexico legislature has passed a bill calling for an investigation of natural gas outages that hit parts of the state in February. Gov. Susana Martinez last Wednesday signed the measure (HB 452), which was unanimously approved by the state Senate March 12. Labeled an emergency investigation under the New Mexico legislative process, the measure creates the Gas Emergency Investigation Task Force composed of designated representatives from state government. The measure spells out the task force parameters and actions, and calls for a report and recommendations to be compiled by Aug. 1. Following energy disruptions caused by a severe freeze in the Southwest which left 28,000 New Mexico Gas Co. customers without service, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee launched investigations and held hearings (see NGI, Feb 28). The task force is to investigate “how and why” many of the state’s rural natural gas consumers were shutoff, the economic and social impacts from that, and determine recommendations for both state and federal regulators on how to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.

In separate announcements late Tuesday, California regulators released documents on two major parts of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and storage system. In one, the utility admits it still has work to do on the recording and testing of more than 400 miles of its pipelines in highly populated areas, and in the second a proposed decision would set utility rates for pipelines and storage at more than half-a-billion-dollars annually for the next four years.

The New Mexico legislature has passed a bill calling for an investigation of the natural gas outages that hit parts of the state in February. It was unclear whether Gov. Susana Martinez plans to sign the measure (HB 452), which was unanimously approved by the state Senate Saturday.

With low temperatures around freezing or less due Tuesday across a broad swath of territory stretching from the Northeast through parts of the Midwest, Midcontinent and Upper Plains into the Rockies and including much of Canada, prices recorded gains that were mostly in single digits at a large majority of points Monday.