Problems

A five-week air quality study found no air contaminant emission levels indicating problems for residents living near Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Greene and Washington counties, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said earlier this week.

A five-week air quality study found no air contaminant emission levels indicating problems for residents living near Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Greene and Washington counties, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said Monday.

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) placed 208 trucks out of service in a three-day enforcement sweep that focused on commercial vehicles that haul wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas drilling sites, Police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski said Wednesday.

TGT said Thursday it had resolved the severe weather problems that caused intermittent losses of land-line phone service, no cell phone service and connectivity issues with its GasQuest nominations system. However, its Owensboro, KY office was closed for a second day as a county state of emergency remained in effect, a spokesman said. A security office for Southern Star Central, which is also headquartered in Owensboro, said that pipeline’s office also was forced to close Wednesday by the winter storm and remained closed Thursday except for essential personnel.

The announcement last week of an early end to Atlanta-based Mirant Corp.’s $4.6 billion stock buyback was not prompted by liquidity problems, according to Mirant CEO Edward R. Muller.

The North American natural gas sector remains solid, and the economic problems cutting across the United States are unlikely to have much of an effect on the sector in the near term, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The North American natural gas sector remains solid, and the economic problems cutting across the United States are unlikely to have much of an effect on the sector in the near term, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Energy companies need to be proactive in policing the marketplace behavior of their employees, and when they find legal or ethical problems they need to be forthright in self-reporting transgressions to FERC, according to a Washington, DC, energy attorney who has closely analyzed the expanded federal enforcement policies granted the Commission in the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct).

Energy companies need to be proactive in policing the marketplace behavior of their employees, and when they find legal or ethical problems they need to be forthright in self-reporting transgressions to FERC, according to a Washington, DC, energy attorney who has closely analyzed the expanded federal enforcement policies granted the Commission in the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct).