State

The Oregon legislature on Wednesday passed and sent to the governor legislation eliminating essentially all use of coal-fired electricity by 2030 while expanding goals for renewable energy, efficiency and electric-based transportation in the state by 2040.

Legal challenges against Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s proposed Mariner East (ME) pipelines are mounting, as Pennsylvania landowners and an environmental advocacy group are fighting against a subsidiary’s efforts to condemn property for the project’s path. The court battles could combine with the commodities downturn to delay the project further.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responding to requests it made last year that all oil and natural gas producers in the state restore inactive well sites, and it has issued notices of violation (NOV) to Range Resources Corp. and EQT Corp. for not complying in a timely manner.

Environmental activists on Tuesday stormed the San Francisco headquarters of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to demand that a dozen natural gas storage facilities in the state be closed in the wake of a four-month-old storage well leak in Southern California (see Daily GPI,Feb. 16).

Responding to a $1 billion budget shortfall attributed to the crude oil price crash, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday ordered across-the-board cuts for state agencies and dipped into the state’s reserve funds.

As the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) works to update its policies for managing state forest land, environmental groups are pushing for more public participation, limited access to state-owned land and more conservation when it comes to natural gas development.

Regulators, environmentalists and operators are focused more than ever on well integrity as the three-month-old battle to plug a natural gas storage well leak in Southern California forces stakeholders to find a way to prevent similar incidents.

Regulators with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) were working on a response to a new series of earthquakes to hit the state, including a 4.3-magnitude temblor that struck near Edmond on Tuesday, but winter storms and flooding were the most immediate concern.

The North Dakota Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Thursday for a case of a mineral owner suing a Bakken producer for payment of royalties for flared natural gas volumes. It has the potential to spur other future action by royalty owners in the state.