Regulator

Capping off a string of regulatory actions that have been favorable to the oil and natural gas industry — and somewhat embarrassing to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — the regulator has said it will delay the release of final air pollution standards for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for two weeks.

New York’s top environmental regulator on Thursday spent nearly three hours defending his agency’s proposed rules to allow expanded natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) before a panel of skeptical state legislators and a raucous audience.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair John Wellinghoff and a California regulator examined the Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) emergency response center in downtown Los Angeles during a national regulators’ meeting, and they found a potential national model, according to Michel Florio, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

A little more than a year after the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), reorganization of the chief federal regulator of offshore energy projects, the Department of Interior, is struggling, and some of the sprawling agency’s major responsibilities may be suffering, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A little more than a year after the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), reorganization of the chief federal regulator of offshore energy projects, the Department of Interior, is struggling, and some of the sprawling agency’s major responsibilities may be suffering, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

With the announcement late Wednesday that Oregon’s chief regulator was stepping down early, several western states are left with new regulatory slots to fill in the new year, including California and Arizona. In most cases, the state regulatory panels will enter 2011 with vacant seats.

Leaving the job of finding the cause of last Thursday’s San Bruno pipeline disaster to federal investigators, California’s lead utility regulator and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) assured energy utility customers that everything is being done for the victims and public safety.

The federal regulator in charge of workplace safety last Thursday levied a fine of $16.6 million against the companies that were involved in the deadly natural gas explosion in February at the Kleen Energy Systems LLC power plant construction site in Middletown, CT.

The federal regulator in charge of workplace safety Thursday levied a fine of $16.6 million against the companies that were involved in the deadly natural gas explosion in February at the Kleen Energy Systems LLC power plant construction site in Middletown, CT.