Took

Outgoing New York Gov. David Paterson took the high road on Saturday, vetoing a bill that would have codified into law a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state through May 15, and at the same time extending until July 1 a deadline for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prepare a supplemental generic environmental impact statement (SGEIS).

After a wild week of ups and downs as January futures traded between $4.328 and $4.637, traders on Friday took a bit of a break as the prompt-month contract traded in a tighter range and ended up closing the regular session at $4.417, down 1.8 cents from Thursday’s finish but 6.8 cents higher than the previous week’s close.

Natural gas futures took a break from the downside Wednesday as near-term weather forecasts got even chillier for a number of heavy gas-usage regions in the East. January natural gas futures recorded a high of $4.324 before closing out the regular session at $4.269, up 8.9 cents from Tuesday’s finish.

In reporting its third quarter earnings, PG&E Corp. last Thursday said it took a $238 million (36 cents/share) charge on a pre-tax basis tied to the Sept. 9 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and fire in a residential neighborhood in suburban San Bruno, 10 miles south of San Francisco.

In reporting its third quarter earnings, PG&E Corp. Thursday said it took a $238 million charge on a pre-tax basis, or 36 cents/share, tied to the Sept. 9 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and fire in a residential neighborhood in suburban San Bruno, 10 miles south of San Francisco.

After winding lower from the mid-$3.80s in early Thursday trading, the November natural gas futures contract took an even deeper plunge following news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that 85 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending Oct. 1. In the minutes before the regular trading session closed, the prompt-month contract tested the $3.610 low for the year recorded on Aug. 27.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Friday took a major step toward implementing the sweeping Wall Street reform bill by voting out an interim final rule and two proposed rules at its first public meeting on the new regulations, but the agency made clear that the measures were not carved in stone and urged the public to comment.

Social media that consumers seem to have adopted faster than they originally took to other electronic communications staples — Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and YouTube — were added to Xcel Energy’s utility tool kit as the utility holding company publicly launched its own social media platform Thursday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Friday took a major step toward implementing the sweeping Wall Street reform bill by voting out an interim final rule and two proposed rules at its first public meeting on the new regulations, but the agency made clear that the measures were not carved in stone and urged the public to comment.