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GreenHunter Energy Inc., which last month saw its water handling facility in an Ohio town stormed by dozens of protestors, now faces another type of protest, with a southeastern Ohio community group demanding that the U.S. Coast Guard study the potential environmental impacts of the company’s proposed hydraulic fracturing (fracking) wastewater transfer station on the Ohio River in New Matamoras, OH.

The Texas Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Toby Baker of Austin to serve as a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Baker has been serving in that capacity since his appointment by Gov. Rick Perry on April 16. His term will expire on Aug. 31, 2017. Baker also serves as the governor’s designee to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, the Coastal Land Advisory Board, and the state’s representative to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) said it has reversed course and now plans to conduct a docket review of two completed natural gas transmission line projects in northeast Pennsylvania, but it is resisting calls from an environmental group to reexamine a third pipeline.

Confirming rumors that have been circulating for months, Energy Secretary Steven Chu Friday said he will not serve a second term in the Obama administration.

The federal government is eyeing the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator (PHMSA) told a Senate panel last Monday.

The federal government is considering the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told a Senate panel Monday.

The federal government is eyeing the possibility of regulating the safety of gathering lines that serve the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, the head of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administrator (PHMSA) told a Senate panel Monday.

Xcel Energy Inc., which provides power generation to Colorado customers, plans to build a 21-mile transmission line (230-kV) in the Piceance Basin to serve anticipated natural gas-fired generation to enhance reliability on the Western Slope. A 1,100 MW gas-fired generator also is planned near Mesquite, NV, on 250 acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A unit of EWP Renewables Corp. has filed an application with Nevada regulators to construct the plant, which would come online in two 550 MW phases in 2016 and 2017.

J. Larry Nichols is retiring as an employee of Devon Energy Corp. effective Dec. 31. He plans to continue to serve as executive chairman and as a director. Nichols’ retirement follows a succession plan announced in June 2010, when Devon President John Richels was promoted to CEO, a post that Nichols had held since 1980. Nichols and his father, John Nichols, co-founded Devon in 1971; the company went public in 1988. Among the company milestones under J. Larry Nichols’ leadership, Devon in 2002 acquired Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., giving it the top position in what was then the emerging Barnett Shale, as well as access to the drilling technology pioneered by George Mitchell, which successfully combined horizontal drilling techniques with hydraulic fracturing well stimulation (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25, 2002; Aug. 15, 2001).