Quality

Opposition to hydraulic fracturing flared up in Ohio this week as about 100 protestors stormed an office and a water handling facility in one Ohio town, while an oil and gas service company threatened to take its business elsewhere if another town set itself up in opposition to drilling.

California air quality officials reported that for the fourth consecutive year carbon emissions from power plants in the state have declined dramatically. A full-year figure for 2012 is still being calculated, according to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is the lead agency implementing the state’s precedent-setting 2006 climate change law (AB 32). As measured by CARB, power plant carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions in 2011 totaled 34.9 million metric tons of CO2e (MTCO2e), compared to 52.3 million MTCO2e four years earlier. Subsequently, the totals dropped to 49.3 million MTCO2e in 2009 and down further to 44.6 million MTCO2e in 2010. Power plants are the biggest stationary source of MTCO2e emissions, followed by refineries and hydrogen plants, whose total emissions are also down compared to 2008 but have steadily risen during the last three recorded years (2009-2011).

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which governs water use for a portion of the Marcellus Shale, has launched an online reporting system for the Water Supply Charges Program (WSCP) to streamline operations. All reports beginning this year must be completed online; reporting and payment deadlines are unchanged.

Making good on its plan to continue a “strategic redirection” of its business, NuStar Energy LP on Monday said it has agreed sell its San Antonio refinery and related assets, including a terminal in Elmendorf, TX, and a pipeline connecting the terminal and refinery, to Calumet Specialty Products Partners, LP for $100 million, plus closing date inventory estimated to be $15 million.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold on Wednesday returned to its U.S. energy roots with a $9 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP), a leading unconventional producer, and McMoRan Exploration Co.

A sidelight of North Dakota’s oil/natural gas boom that predates the shale plays by decades is the widespread natural occurrence of shallow-lying gas mixing with groundwater. The state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) conducts an ongoing study that has identified gas in groundwater in 52 of the state’s 53 counties.

Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission voted to partially adopt federal clean air rules that target hydraulic fracturing (fracking) emissions and hold public meetings next year to consider full implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules.

A U.S. flagged oil tanker arrived at the Port of Corpus Christi, TX, on Wednesday to load Eagle Ford Shale crude for transport to other U.S. ports. The Jones Act of 1920 requires that any goods moved by water from one U.S. port to another must be carried by a U.S. flagged ship. The M/V Pennsylvania passed by the Harbor Bridge gateway to the inner harbor Wednesday and docked at the port’s Oil Dock No. 1, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported. It is the U.S. built tanker’s first visit to the Corpus Christi port.

The head of Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is retiring, and Gov. Matt Mead said on Monday that he is starting a search for a replacement. DEQ Director John Corra, who has headed the department for two different governors since 2003, will stay on the job until October. Mead lauded Corra for setting “a standard for effective and balanced regulation with fiscal prudence.” Mead has asked for interested candidates to submit a letter of interest and resume to his office (2090 W. 24th St. Cheyenne, WY, 82002).