State

California’s largest underground natural gas storage facility north of Los Angeles on Tuesday continued to be lambasted by residents and local government officials who told a state legislative hearing in Sacramento that the facility is unsafe, still leaks constantly and is the cause of continuing health problems for nearby residents of an upscale housing development.

Two senior officials within the Trump administration said the State Department will recommend approval of TransCanada Corp.’s controversial Keystone XL (KXL) crude oil pipeline, removing one of the remaining barriers to the project’s completion, according to reports.

Wyoming’s three designated funds collectively grossed nearly $30 million from the state’s first online oil and natural gas lease auction earlier this month, the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investment (OSLI) said on Monday.

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) averaged 32.8% renewable-based power supplies for the electricity it distributed last year. California has set a goal for the major utilities like PG&E to hit 33% by the end of 2020. Because of its large hydro electric fleet and the state’s only major nuclear power plant, PG&E had nearly 70% of its power supplies last year come from greenhouse gas-free resources. The company said it is well on the way to hitting a 50% renewable power goal by 2030 that was set by the state.

Despite the commodities downturn that dogged Appalachian producers for most of 2016, natural gas production in Pennsylvania set another record last year when it increased 11% from 2015 to 5.1 Tcf, according to recently released data from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

A proposal in the Idaho legislature (HB 232) that emerged Wednesday is aimed at rewriting the state’s oil/natural gas code to accommodate expected increased exploration and production (E&P) activity in a state that has little historic production.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivered his first state-of-the-state address late Wednesday, and the Democrat voiced strong support for Appalachian shale producers, saying a tiered severance tax should be established and the industry should be helped, not hindered by the state.

Mexico’s energy reforms are a nationwide affair, but much of the action — and potential conflict — will happen at the state and municipal level, where the drill bits and pipelines meet the ground, speakers said Wednesday at a conference in Monterrey, the capital of northeastern state Nuevo León.

Oklahoma Attorney General (AG) Scott Pruitt, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), shared his vision Wednesday for a more cooperative relationship between state and federal regulators, while facing criticism from Democrats over his ties to the oil and gas industry.