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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued three final rules governing emissions from new oil and gas wells on Thursday. It also began the process for regulating emissions from existing oil and gas sources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued three final rules governing emissions from new oil and gas wells on Thursday. It also began the process for regulating emissions from existing oil and gas sources.

California energy officials last week continued to wrestle with where to find more natural gas, renewables and purchased power sources for electric generation as they dealt with closing San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Songs). Southern California Edison Co.’s (SCE) decision to shutter the 2,200 MW facility could cost $3 billion cost for up to 50 years (see NGI, June 10).

Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) are beginning to collect data from possible fugitive methane emissions sources in natural gas transmission systems in an effort to quantify the amount of the greenhouse gas that is escaping.

While California energy officials wrestle with where to find more natural gas-fired, renewable-based and purchased power sources of electric generation in the immediate years ahead, regulators and utility officials will be coping with the closure and eventual decommissioning of one of the state’s two major nuclear generation plants.

In a public debate on how much use and emphasis there should be on oil/natural gas and particularly hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday called natural gas the best transition for his state eventually to move to more reliance on efficiency and renewable energy programs.

Besides powering a manufacturing/petrochemical industry renaissance, North America’s abundant supply of shale gas is fueling a war of words over the merits of energy exports versus domestic usage.

Natural gas production from unconventional sources in Pennsylvania hit a record 2.04 Tcf in 2012, as the state’s Marcellus/Utica shale gas for the first time edged ahead of the granddaddy Barnett Shale in Texas.

Natural gas production from unconventional sources in Pennsylvania hit a record 2.04 Tcf in 2012, as the state’s Marcellus/Utica shale gas for the first time edged ahead of the granddaddy Barnett Shale in Texas.