Stirring

Calgary-based Encana Corp. and Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. are stirring up interest in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, where they are working separately with area drillers to explore in the Mancos Shale.

State officials and industry stakeholders from the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 oil producing states, North Dakota and Alaska, are stirring the pot of competition, speculating that Bakken supplies may soon be edging out Alaskan crude from West Coast refineries, particularly Tesoro Corp.’s facility at Anacortes, WA.

Given the events in Japan and last September’s fatal natural gas pipeline rupture in California, residents in and around California state’s capital are stirring up eleventh-hour doubts about a proposed underground gas storage facility south of their city. Some Sacramento residents will not accept a final environmental report listing as remote the chance of a leak or accident at the proposed facility.

Two issues are stirring the pot for Oregon lawmakers: No. 1, legislators are working to stop potential offshore oil/gas drilling along the state’s coastline. No. 2, and separately a business-labor coalition went to the state capital last Wednesday to take aim at the legislature to correct what it characterizes as a flawed regulatory permitting system for energy infrastructure.

After throbbing drums, wailing fiddle reels and whirling dancers provided a stirring opening in Inuvik Jan. 25 to Canadian northern pipeline hearings, a pro-development regional majority wasted no time in telling the reluctant minority to get in step.

After stirring up a flap among a newly elected combination of regulators, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) on Thursday rescinded a mandatory prohibition against one of its five members facing criminal charges, replacing it with a softer resolution that would make it voluntary for any member who is a criminal or civil defendant to recuse themselves from votes on internal personnel and administrative matters at the commission.

With two of his most likely opposition party political rivals stirring up energy issues last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have forgotten about the energy sector, but aides in his Sacramento press office disagree with that perception. They predict Schwarzenegger will divulge before summer his “energy plan.”

With two of his most likely opposition party political rivals stirring up energy issues this week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have forgotten about the energy sector, but aides in his Sacramento press office disagree with that perception. They predict Schwarzenegger will divulge before summer his “energy plan.”

California’s governor plans to keep stirring the pot in the waning days of April, but he is realistic enough to know the pace of his energy initiatives won’t run any faster than the political wheels that turn in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. While he waits for state and federal legislative help, Gov. Gray Davis will focus on new generation this week, naming a “generation czar” to replace a loaned utility executive and continuing to try to mend political fences, according to his press spokesman.