Rejected

Claims that FERC violated constitutional due process when it approved the New Jersey-New York Expansion Project in May are without merit and should be rejected, said project sponsors Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) and Algonquin Gas Transmission (see NGI, May 28).

Claims that FERC violated constitutional due process when it approved the New Jersey-New York Expansion Project in May are without merit and should be rejected, said project sponsors Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) and Algonquin Gas Transmission (see Daily GPI, May 23).

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week rejected by a 3-2 vote a long-standing proposal to develop an idle dry natural gas field into a 7.5 Bcf capacity underground storage project beneath a residential community in Sacramento.

Directors of Australia-based Eureka Energy Ltd. have rejected a proposal from Fort Worth-based Lonestar Resources Inc. for Eureka to acquire Lonestar for scrip consideration. Eureka said it had expected to reject the proposal when it was received last week. “Nevertheless, over the weekend the company pursued discussions with Lonestar with the objective of securing a proposal on more favorable terms,” Eureka said. “The parties were unable to agree on terms, and consequently Lonestar has withdrawn the proposal.” An offer by Australia’s Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd. to acquire Eureka expires Friday (see Shale Daily, June 11). Both Aurora and Eureka have assets in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, as does Lonestar. On Wednesday Eureka said “it is reasonable to accept” the Aurora offer after previously recommending that shareholders reject it.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders on Friday soundly rejected two board members up for reelection and approved three shareholder-initiated resolutions at the company’s annual meeting in Oklahoma City, signaling a turning point for the operator’s corporate governance and likely for the future of CEO Aubrey McClendon.

California lawmakers on Thursday rejected an industry-opposed bill (SB 1054) on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but a second fracking measure (AB 591) is still alive.

FERC on Tuesday rejected North Baja Pipeline LLC’s request for a two-year extension of its certificate authority to construct and place into service proposed Phase II facilities to transport regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Sempra Energy’s Energia Costa Azul terminal in Baja, Mexico, to California and Arizona.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected without comment former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal to overturn his 19 convictions for fraud. Two years ago the high court ruled that federal prosecutors had used an improper legal theory to convict Skilling in 2006, saying Skilling couldn’t be convicted under a federal statute outlawing fraudulent schemes to withhold “honest services” (see NGI, June 28, 2010). Although the Supreme Court invalidated the prosecution’s honest services theory, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans last year found the federal government’s evidence of conspiracy sufficient to uphold his convictions (see NGI, April 11, 2011). The Fifth Circuit said the verdict would have been the same because there was “overwhelming evidence that Skilling conspired to commit securities fraud and thus we conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the verdict would have been the same absent the alternative-theory error.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected without comment former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal to overturn his 19 convictions for fraud.