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The City of Morgantown, WV, and Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) appear to be on a collision course, with the city preparing to pass an ordinance Tuesday night that would ban hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking), and the company in turn vowing to sue the city if it tries to interfere with its two wells.

Elected officials from Monongalia County, WV, will meet their counterparts from the cities of Morgantown and Westover for a work session Wednesday to discuss Morgantown’s proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

The New Brunswick Energy Commission (NBEC) has recommended that the province increase its reliance on natural gas as it transitions away from the use of other fossil fuels for heating, electricity and transportation.

The Chesapeake Bay, long plagued by pollution from development across its 64,000-square-mile watershed, is showing “some encouraging signs of improvement,” but is still “dangerously out of balance” and needs to be protected from a variety of threats, including natural gas drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s (CBF) “2010 State of the Bay” report.

The Obama administration last week set adrift offshore drillers’ plans to develop the gassy eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts because of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, setting off a tidal wave of criticism by the energy industry.

The Obama administration has rescinded a decision to allow offshore drilling in the gassy eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts because of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.

Changes to Louisiana law that would tax the lateral portions of horizontal wells have the state’s producer community ready to fight, but parish tax assessors say laterals should have been taxable all along.

Changes to Louisiana law that would tax the lateral portions of horizontal wells have the state’s producer community ready to fight, but parish tax assessors say laterals should have been taxable all along.

In a pair of decisions likely to hinder natural gas development in portions of Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell placed a moratorium on drilling on state forest land and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a new policy requiring well operators working on state park and forest land to identify all areas of their tracts that will be disturbed by development activities.