Speeds

With the jurisdictional fight still unresolved in a pending federal court case, proponents of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Long Beach Harbor and California regulators continued this week to move closer to an eventual head-on legal collision. State regulators are moving ahead with a formal regulatory proceeding, and Mitsubishi Corp.’s Sound Energy Solutions (SES) is refusing to participate until the jurisdictional question is resolved.

A National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) pre-filing process applied to natural gas pipeline projects has greatly accelerated the average permitting times to a year or less for what used to average more than two years, FERC Commissioner Suedeen Kelly told an industry audience in Santa Fe, NM, last Friday. The same process of regulatory staff and applicants sharing information before a formal filing was applied last year in the pending application by a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp. to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Long Beach Harbor.

The Chancery Court of Delaware is stepping up the pace on alawsuit filed on June 24 against Columbia Energy Group by NiSource,NiSource said yesterday. The court has called for an acceleratedschedule for the case in which NiSource is seeking to compelColumbia to reopen its 1999 annual meeting so that another directorcan be elected to a vacant seat on Columbia’s board.