Plans

Duke Energy Corp. plans to add another natural gas-fired power plant to its fleet to replace its retired Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Citrus County, FL.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) said it has reversed course and now plans to conduct a docket review of two completed natural gas transmission line projects in northeast Pennsylvania, but it is resisting calls from an environmental group to reexamine a third pipeline.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a division of the Commerce Department, said it plans to conduct a supplemental environmental review of the incidental taking of marine mammals, specifically whales, dolphins, sea lions and seals, by the oil and gas industry incidental to exploration activities in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) has refused to let TransCanada Corp. grab an early lead in building new pipelines for shale gas in northern British Columbia (BC) by rejecting immediate construction of a jumbo link to the main drilling target, the Horn River Basin.

Although the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has missed deadlines for two of the three studies it was required to perform under the state’s Marcellus Shale regulatory reform law, the agency is close to completing one of the studies and should present it to legislators soon.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a division of the Commerce Department, announced that it plans to conduct a supplemental environmental review of the incidental taking of marine mammals, specifically whales, dolphins, sea lions and seals, by the oil and gas industry incidental to exploration activities in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

Home heating products retailer Dead River Co. plans to sell and supply compressed natural gas (CNG) to commercial and institutional customers in central, northern and eastern Maine from Xpress Natural Gas’ (XNG) soon-to-be-completed CNG terminal in Washington County, ME, the companies said. The customers to be served typically use at least 75,000 gallons of heating oil annually. Boston-based XNG currently trucks liquefied natural gas to industrial customers. The partnership brings together XNG proprietary technology with Dead River’s more than one hundred years of experience in trucked fuels and energy services.

Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner (CFTC) Jill Sommers, one of two Republicans at the agency, informed President Obama that she plans to resign at the end of March, more than a year before her current term ends. Sommers, who has not indicated what she may do once she leaves the CFTC, said she wants to remain at the Commission until it approves the last group of Dodd-Frank rules to reform the derivatives market. She and Commissioner Scott O’Malia, the only other Republican, often joined forces to oppose proposals supported by the majority. Sommers joined the CFTC in August 2007 for a term that expired in April 2009. She was renominated by Obama to serve a second term, which is scheduled to end in 2014. “Jill has worked to bring common-sense swaps market reforms to life and to safeguard the integrity of the futures market. [She] has been essential to these…efforts. I wish [her] well in all of her future pursuits,” said CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. Sommers has worked in the commodity futures and options industry throughout her career. In 2005, she was the policy director and head of government affairs for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and prior to that she worked in the government affairs office of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), helping to draft the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Since the five-member Commission is limited to three members from a single party and the it currently has three Democrats, Sommers’ successor would have to be a Republican or from another party.

Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner (CFTC) Jill Sommers, one of two Republicans at the agency, Thursday told President Obama that she plans to resign at the end of the first quarter, more than a year before her current term ends.