Subpoena

FERC staff is seeking a pair of subpoenas to gather testimony in its six-year old case over allegations that BP America Inc. manipulated Houston Ship Channel (HSC) natural gas prices.

The House Natural Resources Committee last Wednesday authorized its chairman to subpoena five Obama administration officials who are said to have direct knowledge or involvement in the drafting, editing or review of an Interior Department report that recommended a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in May 2010 following the Macondo well blowout (see NGI, April 26, 2010).

The House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday authorized its chairman to subpoena five Obama administration officials who are said to have direct knowledge or involvement in the drafting, editing or review of an Interior Department report that recommended a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in May 2010 following the Macondo well blowout (see Daily GPI, April 22, 2010).

The House Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider whether to subpoena five Interior Department officials to appear before the panel to respond to questions about the Obama administration’s actions leading up to a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in May 2010.

The House Natural Resources Committee plans to subpoena the Interior Department to obtain documents related to a report that allegedly had been altered to suggest that the National Academy of Engineering had endorsed a decision to impose a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in 2010.

Language included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) relating to the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) “is extremely unclear and is open to interpretation,” making it unclear if the use of diesel fuel in fracking operations would be a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), according to a Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) spokesman.

Bedminster, NJ-based NUI Corp., which stunned the financial community in September by announcing that it would sell its entire business, said last Wednesday that it received document subpoenas from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office regarding “certain questionable transactions” at its wholesale energy trading operation.

Bedminster, NJ-based NUI Corp., which stunned the financial community in September by announcing that it would sell its entire business, said Wednesday that it received document subpoenas from the New Jersey Attorney General’s office regarding “certain questionable transactions” at its wholesale energy trading operation.

A district judge was expected to rule shortly on whether McGraw-Hill Cos. subsidiary Platts would be required to turn over its natural gas trading data to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) following a hearing in Houston last Monday. The CFTC subpoenaed the data as part of an investigation into market manipulation during the western energy crisis.