Special

The signs on Monday were pointing toward Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper calling a special session of the state legislature later this month to pass a hoped-for bipartisan measure that would resolve nagging issues over local control of oil and natural gas activities throughout the state.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was appointed last week as a special master to investigate apparent misconduct by one of the lawyers who helped manage BP plc’s $7.8 billion settlement fund with Gulf Coast plaintiffs over the deepwater Macondo well blowout in April 2010.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was appointed Tuesday as a special master to investigate apparent misconduct by one of the lawyers who helped manage BP plc’s $7.8 billion settlement fund with Gulf Coast plaintiffs over the deepwater Macondo well blowout in April 2010.

With industry, a U.S. senator and North Dakota state officials all focused on robust permitting applications for oil and natural gas development in the Bakken Shale, a new collaboration of federal agencies, the Bakken Federal Executives Group, is the latest attempt to streamline federal processes that are criticized for being too slow.

There could be increased bilateral cooperation between the United States and Mexico in several energy sectors, including development of the Eagle Ford Shale south of the border, depending on developments in Mexico’s latest reform government, according to an expert on Mexican policy.

A special community public hearing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last Friday did nothing to clear up the immediate future of major electric generation sources in Southern California. Majority owner/operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Songs), Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), faced withering questioning from the NRC on its partial restart plan for Songs Unit 2.

The West Virginia Department of Revenue (DOR) has decided not to assign assessed value to oil and natural gas wellpad sites in the state, heeding the advice of a special committee of county assessors that doing so would pose a hardship to farmers who own surface, but not mineral, rights to their land.

A special state appeal panel has invalidated the selection by Maine’s Bureau of General Services (BGS) of a proposal by Maine Natural Gas (MNG) to build an 80-mile-long natural gas pipeline to the state capital, Augusta, and the surrounding Kennebec Valley.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s annual meeting Friday has taken on special meaning for the company, its shareholders and the business community following corporate governance questions raised in the past two months that are hanging over the heads of CEO Aubrey McClendon and members of the board of directors. Two board members face reelection, but if big shareholder groups have their way, including the third largest, Carl Icahn, the company will see some new faces.