Policies

A notice of inquiry (NOI) issued by FERC Thursday to examine whether to revise its policies on determining the return of equity (ROE) used in setting rates charged by jurisdictional public utilities also seeks comment on whether to change ROE policies for interstate natural gas and oil pipelines.

Mexican President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his chief of staff are sending conflicting messages on energy policy, a recurring theme throughout the campaign that has continued since the former’s landslide July 1 election.

President-elect Donald J. Trump, set to take office following a stunning upset of Hillary Clinton, is poised to sweep away renewable energy initiatives and stringent oversight launched by the Obama administration and enact an all-of-the-above energy strategy, experts said Wednesday.

If the United States were to adopt the energy policies of the European Union (EU), it would impose a $676 billion drag on the U.S. residential sector and a $31 billion hit on the industrial sector annually, cost the average American household an additional $4,800 for energy every year, and eliminate the equivalent of nearly 8 million jobs, according to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Fuel switching policies to move more end-users to natural gas should be a part of each state’s energy strategy, particularly in rural areas, according to a panel of experts speaking Wednesday at a National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) teleseminar.

America’s “shale revolution,” combined with increased Gulf of Mexico oil production, the potential for major deposits in the Arctic, and growth in tight and heavy oil, including oilsands, makes North America’s energy picture much brighter than it was not that long ago, Royal Dutch Shell plc CEO Peter Voser said recently at the Chief Executives Club of Boston.

Williams, which has been expanding its onshore presence in the Marcellus and Utica shales, late Tuesday snagged a deal to significantly expand its onshore footprint in a $2.4 billion transaction to acquire half of the natural gas pipeline system once owned by Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Natural gas figures prominently in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s 19-page energy and environment message to Michiganders and their lawmakers, which was released last week. It includes many ideas for natural gas, oil, power generation and energy efficiency, but before much can happen, guidance from the federal government is needed, he said.

Policies that take advantage of the U.S. fossil fuel energy abundance — natural gas, oil and coal — could spark “widespread employment growth” in many areas of the country, according to new research by the Manhattan Institute.