Planning

The Senate passed a bill Tuesday calling for Congressional disapproval of a rule by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revise its resource management planning process. The bill will now head to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said a proposed rule that would, among other things, increase public involvement in the way it formulates Resource Management Plans (RMP), would not directly affect the decisions it makes but conceded that it could impact the oil and gas industry.

In California generally and for Edison International’s Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) utility particularly, the future role of natural gas in power generation is dwindling in response to a long-standing state water ban causing the closing or repowering of coastal gas-fired plants and more recently from the state’s aggressive climate change policies. Reliability needs, however, will keep some gas-fired generation in the mix for some time.

Although two comprehensive energy bills passed the muster of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday, the more controversial one — which would lift the ban on U.S. crude oil exports, among other things — only cleared the hurdle along party lines, and both bills face amendments and uncertain futures in the Senate.

The six participating planning authorities of the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) — ISO New England, New York ISO, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator, Midcontinent ISO, PJM Interconnection and the Tennessee Valley Authority — have completed a natural gas-electric system interface study as part of a planning effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The six participating planning authorities of the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) — ISO New England, New York ISO, Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, Midcontinent ISO, PJM Interconnection and the Tennessee Valley Authority — have completed a natural gas-electric system interface study as part of a planning effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is planning to exit the physical commodities business, including its remaining holdings of commodities assets and its physical trading operations.

Valero Energy Corp. is planning to make its first big splash in the petrochemicals market by constructing a $700 million methanol plant on the same site in St. Charles Parish, LA, where its transportation fuel refinery is located.

GreenHunter Water LLC has begun to process complex oilfield waste streams at its bulk storage and barge transloading terminal in New Matamoras, OH, the GreenHunter Resources Inc. subsidiary said Friday.