Purge

In an effort to prevent fires and explosions caused when natural gas is used to clean or purge gas pipes of debris, air or other substances, typically during facility construction and maintenance, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in a 4-1 vote Monday night approved a list of “urgent recommendations” for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and others. Among the recommendations is to require “the use of inherently safer alternatives such as air blows or pigging with air in lieu of flammable gas.”

The Senate on Tuesday drove back an attempt by coastal state senators to purge a provision from the omnibus energy bill (HR 6) that directs the federal government to carry out an inventory of the oil and natural gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a harsh critic of FERC, has called on the Commission to purge its web site of what she claims are pornographic e-mails written by Enron Corp. employees. Federal rules ban employees from even looking at the kind of material that FERC has published on its Internet page, she said.

PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group continued its purge ofnon-profitable assets yesterday by announcing plans to sellPG&E Energy Services contracts to Enron Energy ServicesOperations Inc. (EES) for $85 million. The sale is subject to FERCand other regulatory reviews. It is expected to be completed by theclose of the second quarter this year.