Solution

In his first address to a joint session of Congress last Tuesday, President Obama heralded renewable fuels as the solution to the country’s nagging energy problems, while the Republicans in their response stressed the need for diversity in the U.S. energy mix, including stepped-up domestic oil and natural gas drilling.

In his first address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, President Obama heralded renewable fuels as the solution to the country’s nagging energy problems, while the Republicans in their response stressed the need for diversity in the U.S. energy mix, including stepped-up domestic oil and natural gas drilling.

In an effort to prove that coal can be part of the greenhouse gas (GHG) solution instead of part of the problem, Dominion said late last week that its Brayton Point Power Station in New England will become the site of a large-scale demonstration project designed to convert biomass, coal and petroleum coke into separate streams of natural gas and carbon dioxide.

In an effort to prove that coal can be part of the greenhouse gas (GHG) solution instead of part of the problem, Dominion said Thursday that its Brayton Point Power Station in New England will become the site of a large-scale demonstration project designed to convert biomass, coal and petroleum coke into separate streams of natural gas and carbon dioxide.

Helix Energy Solution’s exploration and production (E&P) subsidiary Energy Resource Technology (ERT) has reported the second discovery in less than six months in the deepwater Garden Banks Block 506, which is located about 145 miles offshore Galveston, TX, in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in 2,700 feet of water.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports may not be the final solution to the nation’s gas supply problem, but LNG imports are expected to grow dramatically over the next decade — at least 7% per year through 2015 as long as there is enough pipeline and storage infrastructure built to support the growth, industry experts said at an LNG conference in Houston on Wednesday.

Peoples Energy said Thursday that it is “disappointed” in a ruling by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) that denies its “creative solution” for a Weather Normalization Adjustment (WNA) that would have helped to stabilize the service charge portion of a customer’s natural gas bill in Illinois during colder and warmer than normal winters.

While the public scuffling between pro and con factions gain most of the attention, the key to the eventual development of Sound Energy Solution’s (SES) LNG import terminal in the Port of Long Beach, CA, is an environmental impact review (EIR) currently in “administrative draft” form, according to Robert Kanter, the Port’s planning director. The EIR should be released for public comment by mid-June, he said.

Duke Energy subsidiary Market Hub Partners (MHP) said it will use utilize Solution Mining Under Gas (SMUG) technology to add a third salt cavern with 8 Bcf of capacity to the Egan gas storage facility in Acadia Parish, LA. SMUG allows the expansion to take place while the storage facility remains in service. The project is expected to be completed in mid to late 2006.