Sticking

As a further sign the state is sticking with natural gas-fired electric generation, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last Thursday overcame a mounting chorus of naysayers and gave the go-ahead (again) to a power plant that has been in the development phase for more than a decade in Northern California.

U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday offered the final version of the department’s OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, sticking to tried and true areas in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and holding out delayed possibilities in Alaska.

U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday offered the final version of the department’s OCS [Outer Continental Shelf] Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, sticking to tried and true areas in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and holding out delayed possibilities in Alaska.

Despite current low prices and decreased volatility that are making natural gas storage plays unattractive, Portland, OR-based NW Natural is sticking with its strategy for operating and expanding merchant storage facilities in the West.

Sticking to a fairly tight trading range for a second consecutive session, August natural gas futures on Tuesday traded between $4.334 and $4.487 before closing the day at $4.354, down 3.4 cents from Monday’s close.

Sticking to the recent script of back-and-forth moves in natural gas futures, the August contract followed up Thursday’s 23.8-cent increase with a drop of 16.7 cents to close Friday’s regular session at $4.687.

Despite the recent appearance of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season’s first four named storms, Andover, MA-based WSI Corp. said it is sticking with its previous forecast of a total of 10 named storms, including five hurricanes, with two of them intense (Category Three or greater) forming by Nov. 30. Temperatures across most of the country during the next three months will be warmer than normal, WSI said.

Siding with prior-day futures weakness instead of sticking to the week’s flip-flopping trend, cash points unanimously crumbled on Friday with most points declining by more than a half-dollar and a number of points out west shedding more than a dollar.

Sticking to its earlier predictions, which are in line with a number of other forecasting firms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday it still sees above-average temperatures this winter for most of the United States.