Strongly

Economics have overtaken environmental concerns, and U.S. consumers today strongly support increased energy production from domestic sources, particularly natural gas, according to a University of Texas at Austin (UT) Energy Poll released on Tuesday.

A unit of Japan’s Marubeni Corp. has struck a deal to acquire a 35% stake in Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co.’s Eagle Ford Shale holdings. Marubeni pledged Friday to grow its stake in shales, in the United States and around the world.

The cash market is displaying one of its quirkier characteristics. After rising strongly at all but one point Monday in anticipation of significantly colder temperatures approaching later in the week to much of the nation’s midsection, prices fell at a large majority of locations Tuesday, even as the heating load-boosting conditions began to arrive.

A coal liquefaction plant that had been strongly opposed in southwestern Ohio has taken on new life after the developer agreed to use natural gas from the nearby Marcellus and Utica shales instead of coal in the production process.

The Canadian government is launching two separate studies on the science of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and its potential impact on the environment.

Some easing of hot weather going into the weekend had been reversed as the new trading week began, and prices were up strongly across the board Monday — even featuring a couple of dollar-plus jumps in New England as peak temperatures neared 90 in the Boston area.

With the incentive of job creation and the caveat of environmental protection, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper strongly endorsed the need for development of natural gas resources in his state and nationwide as part of his remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Bipartisan Governors Summit Monday in Washington, DC. Hickenlooper co-chaired the event.

Despite ending April at 1.8 Tcf — about an 11% decline compared with April 2010 — working gas inventories will build strongly this summer and should approach record-high levels in the second half of the year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook for May.

In comments filed Monday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Oklahoma Gas and Electricity (OG&E) strongly rejected the federal agency’s plan to reduce haze in the state in favor of Oklahoma’s own plan. EPA’s approach would create billions of dollars of unnecessary utility costs, resulting in the largest rate increase in the utility’s history, OG&E said.