Polls

Supporters of an “environmental bill of rights” charter amendment in Mansfield, OH, prevailed at the polls last week, but opponents of the measure fear it could be used beyond its intended purpose — to possibly block wastewater injection wells — and applied to other types of business.

Supporters of an “environmental bill of rights” charter amendment in Mansfield, OH, prevailed at the polls on Tuesday, but opponents of the measure fear it could be used beyond its intended purpose — to possibly block wastewater injection wells — and applied to other types of business.

A series of bills that would affect the regulation of natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) operations in Arkansas failed to clear a hurdle in the state’s House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Thursday and appeared unlikely to move to the full House during the current legislative session.

Scrambling to make up ground in opinion polls showing his gubernatorial campaign trailing the incumbent, California State Treasurer Phil Angelides Friday stood on a bluff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean and declared he is opposed to BHP Billiton’s proposal to build an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal about a dozen miles out to sea.

Trendlines, like exit polls for statisticians, can tell marketwatchers a lot about the direction in which things might beheading. And while some statisticians in political arena might bewell-advised to take a closer look at their rules and procedures oflate, technicians in the natural gas arena have had a pretty easytime forecasting market moves. Since smashing into long-termtrendline support on Oct. 31, the market has resumed its uptrendand erupted a dollar higher, leaving even the mostdyed-in-the-wool bear traders second guessing their stripes.December futures finished strongly again Wednesday, up 25.7 centsat $5.338.

With retail energy competition around the corner and powergeneration growing by leaps and bounds, Colorado is in need of newgas storage capacity, according to Brandt Energy President MichaelG. Wright.

California’s statewide electricity ballot referendum that wouldturn back parts of the state’s ongoing power industry restructuringis losing by a bigger margin in the latest nonpartisan FieldInstitute survey, but the percentage of undecided voters (36%) isstill large, according to political polling experts.