Sunday

As part of the lingering reaction to a natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion two years ago in San Bruno, CA, Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed into law four bills dealing with parts of the tragedy along with two other energy-related bills. Overall, Brown signed 34 measures and vetoed five for the day.

In a report that aired Sunday, CBS News said New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will make an announcement sometime after Sept. 3 that high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) will be allowed to move forward in the state, ending a four-year wait and an effective moratorium on the practice.

A report in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle based on a utility filing to state regulators earlier this year has raised doubts about the safety of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) natural gas pipeline system and the utility’s nearly two-year effort to improve safety and reliability since the fatal San Bruno, CA, pipeline explosion.

Despite earlier promulgations that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be performed safely, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have legalized the practice and begun the process for its regulation.

Cash points dipped across the country Friday for Sunday and Monday delivery as the brutal heat being experienced in much of the country was expected to dissipate over the weekend. Market points could be in for a rebound Monday after August natural gas futures on Friday finished 10.2 cents higher at $2.824, up 15.6 cents from the previous week’s finish.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has called the state legislature into a special session scheduled to begin Sunday (Dec. 11) to discuss, and possibly pass, a compromise Marcellus Shale regulatory reform bill as early as this week. The Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale (JSCMS), a 10-member bipartisan committee, has been working on legislation informally known as the Marcellus Draft Bill (MDB) for weeks. The JSCMS used a failed bill called the Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, also known as SB 424, as the bill’s foundation (see NGI, Aug. 15). The shale gas industry is concerned by an amendment calling for operators to pay a $10,000 permitting fee for the first well drilled on a pad and $5,000 for each additional well well (see NGI, Nov. 28; Sept. 19). The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also has proposed increasing horizontal drilling fees to $10,000 — up from the current $650 paid by all drillers — to fund additional inspectors (see NGI, Feb. 14).

A subsidiary of China’s largest oil and gas producer, Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp., Sunday agreed to pay C$2.2 billion in cash to acquire Calgary independent Daylight Energy Ltd.

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light released a position paper on Marcellus Shale drilling Sunday, outlining changes that need to be made before drilling could be viewed as acceptable through a moral compass. The organization said it would support shale drilling if it replaced coal and other fossil fuels quickly, if the state enacted a drilling tax and if overall community and environmental impacts were reduced. A copy of the document is available at www.paipl.org.

Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Sunday but ended it Monday.