Puts

With a boost in funding from California regulators to bring natural gas energy efficiency programs back in line with electricity incentives, Pacific Gas and Electric Tuesday marked the official start of winter by adding nearly $8 million in funding for efficient appliances and residential/business equipment. The first rebates will be available Jan. 1.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has imposed an “indefinite” moratorium on an environmental review of a potential natural gas drilling site on the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana in response to stiff local opposition. It plans to re-direct federal funds that were allotted for review of that project to another drilling prospect outside of the Front area where there is “more drilling [activity] and less controversy,” said a spokesman for BLM’s Montana State Office.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the weekend imposed an “indefinite” moratorium on an environmental review of a potential natural gas drilling site on the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana in response to stiff local opposition, and it plans to re-direct federal funds that were allotted for review of that project to another drilling prospect outside of the Front area where there is “more drilling [activity] and less controversy,” said a spokesman for BLM’s Montana State Office.

The U.S. Agriculture Department last Wednesday said it will give the public more time to comment on a proposed rule that would overturn a Clinton administration ban on road building in the national forests, which had put more than 58 million acres of forest lands off-limits to energy exploration and production, logging and other activities. The comment period, which was to expire on Sept. 14, has been extended until Nov. 15.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday it will give the public more time to comment on a proposed rule that would overturn a Clinton administration ban on road building in the national forests, which had placed more than 58 million acres of forest lands off-limits to energy exploration and production, logging and other activities. The comment period, which was to expire on Sept. 14, has been extended until Nov. 15.

FERC last Thursday assured the California Coastal Commission (CCC) that it was not stepping on the agency’s toes by asserting “exclusive jurisdiction” over Sound Energy Solution’s (SES) planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal for the Port of Long Beach, CA.

The bankruptcy code and the Federal Power Act (FPA) bumped heads in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the bankruptcy code won in the Mirant/Pepco decision announced Wednesday. The courts will do the deciding as to whether bankrupt Mirant Corp. should be allowed to breach two power purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco), according to an Appeals Court three-judge panel which reversed and remanded the case to a lower court that had earlier deferred to FERC jurisdiction.

The bankruptcy code and the Federal Power Act bumped heads in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the bankruptcy code won in the Mirant/Pepco decision announced Wednesday. The courts will do the deciding as to whether bankrupt Mirant Corp. should be allowed to breach two power purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco), according to an Appeals Court three-judge panel which reversed and remanded the case to a lower court that had earlier deferred to FERC jurisdiction.

Citing revenue increases of 1-3% more than cash royalties, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced a significant expansion of the government’s royalty-in-kind (RIK) program that calls for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to be accepting and remarketing about 1.3 Bcf/d of its natural gas royalties by 2009.