Richard

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed Richard L. Kauffman as “energy czar” and said he would chair a newly created cabinet position for the Energy Policy and Finance Subcommittee. In a state of the state address, Cuomo said his “ambitious agenda” includes “investments in energy infrastructure, solar power and an electric vehicle network. Kauffman would be tasked with, among other things, creating the state’s first “green bank” within the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The bank would offer loans and grants to further “clean” energy deployment, coordinate and leverage the state’s energy spending and alleviate financial market barriers “that currently impede the flow of private capital to renewable energy projects.” Kauffman is a senior adviser to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He serves on the boards of the Brookings Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar’s (R-IN) legislation to put America’s NATO allies on the same footing as free trade agreement (FTA) nations for the purpose of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports — the LNG for NATO Act — raises interesting talking points, even if its hopes are slim for this Congress, or even the next, analysts said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) Wednesday said the United States should use its natural gas bounty to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to NATO countries to help them reduce their reliance on natural gas supplied by Russia and Iran, thereby bolstering U.S. national security.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law, has a medical “gag rule” that violates a doctor’s constitutional rights to communicate with his patients.

Lots of capital is “sitting on the sidelines,” making now a very good time to build energy and other infrastructure in the United States, according to Richard Cortright, a managing director at Standard and Poor’s Rating Services (S&P).

Lots of capital is “sitting on the sidelines,” making now a very good time to build energy and other infrastructure in the United States, according to Richard Cortright, a managing director at Standard and Poor’s Rating Services (S&P).

It didn’t take long for the natural gas industry and energy insiders to react to a New York Times (NYT) story on Sunday, which cited unnamed industry and government sources describing the shale gas industry as a “Ponzi” scheme with a future similar to Enron Corp. and the bursting of the dot.com bubble.

Pennsylvania election results “were a good thing” for natural gas companies operating in the state, Atlas Resources President Richard Weber told a Marcellus Shale conference in Pittsburgh Wednesday.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) plans to streamline the organizational structure that reports to EIA Administrator Richard Newell down to four areas from the current eight. The reorganization takes effect Oct. 1. The four areas, each to be headed by an assistant administrator, will be Energy Statistics, Energy Analysis, Communications and Resource and Technology Management.