Reintroduced

Montana Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus reintroduced the North Fork Watershed Protection Act last week to protect part of the state’s remote northwest from new oil and gas development and mining. The bill would help fulfill a 2010 trans-border agreement between former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell.

Saying extraction is only “half of the job” of capitalizing on the Marcellus Shale, a group of Pennsylvania House Republicans reintroduced legislation on Wednesday to promote the use of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in the state.

Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mark Begich (D-AK) have reintroduced legislation designed to streamline development of an in-state natural gas pipeline in Alaska by allowing its passage through a national park.

Flexing their political clout in the new Congress, Democrats have reintroduced a bill to designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as wilderness, permanently barring oil and natural gas drilling in the area.

Flexing their political clout in the new Congress, Democrats have reintroduced a bill that would designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as wilderness, permanently barring oil and natural gas drilling in the area.

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) reintroduced legislation (H.R. 5429) this week that would open 2,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling. “There is no logical reason to oppose safe energy exploration and production on ANWR’s northern coastal plain,” Pombo said, adding that President Jimmy Carter created the 20 million-acre area in 1980, setting aside 1.5 million acres on the northern coastal plain for the specific purpose of future energy exploration and development. The 2,000 acres requested to be opened to drilling in ANWR’s 1002 area would be a small fraction of that total, yet it could provide 10.4 billion bbl of recoverable oil, which is more than double the proven reserves in the state of Texas, Pombo said. He predicted that peak oil production from the area being set aside could total 1.5 million bbl/d, which is nearly equal to what the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia every day.

Three New Jersey Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced legislation that would place a permanent ban on drilling off the Jersey Shore and all of the North and Mid-Atlantic states from Maine to Virginia.

Three New Jersey Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced legislation that would place a permanent ban on drilling off the Jersey Shore and all of the North and Mid-Atlantic states from Maine to Virginia.

The usual suspects are at it again, as Pennsylvania Rep. Frank Tulli (R-106) and Sen. Frank Piccola (R-15) reintroduced a gas deregulation bill last Thursday. Their previous attempt to deregulate service to small commercial and residential customers failed to pass in Pennsylvania’s legislature last fall. Unlike the last try, however, this legislation is supported by a natural gas gross receipt tax (GRT) cut proposal from Governor Tom Ridge, enabling the bill to jump a large hurdle it was unable to overcome last time around (See NGI, Feb. 1).