Permanently

The U.S.Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit last week dismissed as moot an appeal of a lower court’s decision in 2003 that permanently enjoined the enforcement of the Clinton administration’s “roadless” rule, which had placed more than 58 million acres of forest lands off limits to energy exploration and production, logging and other activities.

A Florida Republican in the House was joined by 18 other lawmakers from the state’s congressional delegation this week in introducing legislation to permanently ban oil and natural gas off the Florida coastline.

The U.S.Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit earlier this week vacated a lower court’s decision in 2003 to permanently enjoin the enforcement of the Clinton administration’s “roadless” rule, which had placed more than 58 million acres of forest lands off limits to energy exploration and production, logging and other activities.

FERC could and would preempt Georgia regulators if they adopted a plan to permanently assign interstate pipeline capacity assets held by Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) to certificated natural gas marketers who participate in the state’s retail choice program, the Commission said last Wednesday in response to a petition for a declaratory order by the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC).

FERC could and would preempt Georgia regulators if they adopted a plan to permanently assign the interstate pipeline capacity assets held by Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) to certificated natural gas marketers to participate in the state’s retail choice program, the Commission said Wednesday in response to a petition for a declaratory order by the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC).

Consultants at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) are convinced that natural gas production in North America is poised to enter a long-term decline and that imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will have to make up the supply gap. But Tom Wood, gas production expert at the Energy Information Administration (EIA) isn’t buying it. Wood said the gas resource is still there, but producers simply have chosen to drill overseas in the short-term.

Two former Coastal Corp. futures traders agreed to pay fines totaling $70,000 and have been permanently banned from trading commodity futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to settlement agreements reached with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Clay Krhovjak of Belleville, TX, and Paul Cochran of Houston were charged in October 2001 with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate and trade ahead of Coastal Corp. futures trades. The respondents neither admitted nor denied the underlying facts in the case.

Two former Coastal Corp. futures traders agreed to pay fines totaling $70,000 and have been permanently banned from trading commodity futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to settlement agreements reached with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Clay Krhovjak of Belleville, TX, and Paul Cochran of Houston were charged in October 2001 with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate and trade ahead of Coastal Corp. futures trades. The respondents neither admitted nor denied the underlying facts in the case.

Responding to the recent lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that charged Rockland, NY-based ECONnergy with slamming consumers in the state, Jonathan Gewirtz, ECONnergy’s director of business development, said that the attorney general’s claims were “baseless.” Following an 18-month investigation, Spitzer filed the lawsuit accusing the marketer of switching the electric and gas service of New Yorkers without their authorization.