Requiring

Louisiana has joined other states in requiring the disclosure of the contents of fluids used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The rule was proposed earlier this year.

The economics of shale gas development are fundamentally different than conventional resources, requiring a longer time line to reach profitability, according to Terry Engelder, the Pennsylvania State University geosciences professor who helped prove the value of the Marcellus Shale.

The economics of shale gas development are fundamentally different than conventional resources, requiring a longer time line to reach profitability, according to Terry Engelder, the Pennsylvania State University geosciences professor who helped prove the value of the Marcellus Shale.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Friday signed into law legislation (HB 3328) requiring the public disclosure of chemicals in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids, making the Lone Star State a leader on an issue with which other states producing natural gas from shale plays have struggled.

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has reduced the number of previously designated natural gas transmission pipeline segments requiring hydrostatic testing and put in place a separate gas operations group in its combination utility, according to a PG&E spokesperson.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Monday signed an executive order requiring the state to undertake a study of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, with recommendations on a possible state-level severance tax and a report on potential impacts of drilling on groundwater among the items due over the next three years.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a bill (SB 967) that repealed a controversial law (SB 408) passed six years ago requiring annual state regulatory adjustments to align retail utility rates with the actual amounts of taxes paid by the state’s four major investor-owned utilities. NW Natural, the gas-only utility distribution company based in Portland, said it has had a surcharge in place every year that the tax true-up law has been in existence. As a result of the new law being effective immediately, NW Natural said it will be denied recovery of its surcharge for the 2010 tax year. The gas utility said it is now required to record a one-time pre-tax charge to earnings in the second quarter this year of approximately $7.4 million ($4.4 million, or 17 cents/share, after tax) related to amounts earned from the surcharge last year. The original law grew out of a concern that utilities were collecting more in taxes as part of customer rates than they were paying out to governments (see Daily GPI, April 15, 2008).

FERC has rejected a request by associations representing major gas shippers to exercise its Section 5 authority requiring pipelines to amend their tariffs to comply with the Commission’s policy on the crediting of reservation charges during service outages — both planned and unplanned. But the association did not walk away empty handed.

Questar posted an OFO requiring all ISS customers at its Clay Basin storage facility with a negative inventory balance as of March 31, resulting from month-end allocation of storage fuel, to transfer gas in-place to bring the inventory to zero by the end of business on April 30. “An in-place transfer is required to remedy the negative inventory so further storage fuel will not be allocated in April 2011,” Questar said. Any ISS contract with negative inventory remaining at the end of April will be terminated and the balance cashed out, it added.