Suburban

Revenue raised through a proposed impact fee that would cost Marcellus Shale drillers a minimum $10,000 per well annually is needed to help close a project $4.2 billion budget gap in Pennsylvania, according to state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson).

Two communities in suburban Pittsburgh voted against a proposal for their regional park authority to sign a five-year, non-surface lease with a land brokerage firm this week, effectively killing the deal.

A suburban Pittsburgh regional park authority in Allegheny County, PA, voted Thursday to sign a five-year, non surface lease with a Pittsburgh land brokerage firm that could lead to Marcellus drilling under the one park the authority runs. The agreement still needs to be approved by four of the five communities that the authority represents.

As energy storage generally becomes more important economically, a natural gas storage field proposed for an existing suburban residential area in Sacramento, CA, has its backers lamenting the political dust being stirred up (see Daily GPI, March 16). Nevertheless, the head of Sacramento Natural Gas Storage told NGI Wednesday he thinks the project ultimately will prevail.

The Sept. 9 San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline blast that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes in a quiet suburban San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood shouldn’t have happened and should not be repeated anywhere in the future, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) executive told NGI.

Documents filed at FERC reveal that Washington Gas Light (WGL), which serves metropolitan Washington, DC and suburban areas, experienced a significant spike in compression-related natural gas leaks in 1999 when no liquefied natural gas (LNG) was flowing on its system. This was four years prior to the utility reporting a major upswing in leaks that it attributed to deliveries of high Btu-content LNG.

Suggestions that Mirant temporarily shutdown a 482 MW power plant in suburban Virginia for economic reasons “are absolutely false,” Mirant CEO Marce Fuller said last Thursday. “This is peak season for all power companies, and having this plant shut down is costing us money.”

As long cases testing the limits of access to suburban Alberta drilling targets ground through the regulatory process this winter, even the industry’s environmental critics showed respect for the central role natural gas plays in livelihoods and public services across Canada’s chief producing province.

As long cases testing the limits of access to suburban Alberta drilling targets ground through the regulatory process this winter, even the industry’s environmental critics showed respect for the central role natural gas plays in livelihoods and public services across Canada’s chief producing province.