Socalgas

Researchers at University of California, Irvine, (UCI) reported advances that allow increased reliance on intermittent renewable sources of electric power at the UCI International Colloquium on Environmentally Preferred Advanced Generation late last month.

Touted as a factor in expanding the use of natural gas among heavy duty vehicle fleets, renewable natural gas (RNG), or biomethane, is getting a new pipeline link in Southern California with a joint project of waste management company CR&R Environmental Inc. and Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas).

Under criticism in some quarters for its efforts to curb methane emissions from its pipeline and storage system, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) launched pipeline and storage mitigation and monitoring systems this past weekend that promise improvements in reducing leaks.

While calling for continued cooperation with federal and local authorities, California state air regulators on Thursday approved the next generation of air quality standards that are aimed at further reducing emissions from transportation vehicles, a move that natural gas vehicle (NGV) advocates welcomed.

In the past three months, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has reported various leaks at its closed Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage complex. The latest incident, albeit small, happened Friday with a “minor leak” in an eight-inch diameter above-ground pipeline.

Natural gas tried to energize one of the nation’s largest farm expos on Tuesday as Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) showed off its rural side in Tulare, CA, the heart of the state’s bread basket, which coexists with the third-largest U.S. oil producing operations.

The first of two days of state-run public hearings Wednesday in Los Angeles on the aftermath of the Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field methane leak was abruptly shut down after hundreds of angry residents refused to let proponents of the facility speak, drowning them out with repeated cries of “shut it down.”

On the eve of two days of public regulatory hearings Wednesday and Thursday, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) released a progress report Monday, alleging that the shuttered Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage facility is “safe and fit for service. The utility said resumption of gas injections is critical to regional energy reliability.

A fraction of the base supply of 15 Bcf of natural gas was withdrawn Tuesday and Wednesday from the closed Aliso Canyon underground storage facility by its owner/operator, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), the Sempra Energy utility reported on Thursday.