Town

Voters in the town of Chelsea in Maine’s Kennebec County have approved the designation of a tax increment district that will generate revenue from natural gas transmission pipelines that the town plans to devote to economic development over the next 30 years.

Commercial support may emerge for a plan to revive a mining ghost town in northern British Columbia (BC) as another entry in the lineup of projects for exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada’s Pacific coast, says the idea’s sponsor.

A train derailment near the town of Parkers Prairie, MN, Wednesday morning spilled 20,000-30,000 gallons of crude oil into a field, but frozen, snow-covered ground was “a saving grace” that should keep environmental damage to a minimum, a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) spokesman told NGI’s Shale Daily. Fourteen of the Canadian Pacific Railroad train’s 94 cars derailed and oil from three of them was leaked, the spokesman said. “They’re going to be able to recover most, if not all” of the oil, according to MPCA spokesman Dan Olson. No injuries were reported.

GreenHunter Energy Inc., which last month saw its water handling facility in an Ohio town stormed by dozens of protestors, now faces another type of protest, with a southeastern Ohio community group demanding that the U.S. Coast Guard study the potential environmental impacts of the company’s proposed hydraulic fracturing (fracking) wastewater transfer station on the Ohio River in New Matamoras, OH.

Elected officials in Ft. Collins, CO, the university town about 57 miles north of Denver, have passed a ban on oil and natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the city limits. The measure still must pass on a second reading in early March.

Norse Energy Corp. USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, just days after a New York judge ruled the cash-strapped company had to deposit millions into an escrow account for a legal dispute with a drilling company.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has launched an investigation following an explosion at a natural gas compression facility in the northern Mexico border town of Reynosa, near McAllen, TX, where at least 29 people were killed and as many as 50 more were injured. Seven people reportedly were missing.

Agreements carved out by the small Front Range Colorado town of Erie have added to the state’s rules covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and could serve as a model for other local jurisdictions. The state, however, maintains the exclusive right of enforcement.

Agreements between two oil and gas producers and a small Front Range Colorado town have added to the state’s rules covering hydraulic fracturing and depend solely on the state for enforcement. Memoranda of understanding (MOU) inked separately by Encana Oil & Gas Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. with the city of Erie, CO, include several best management practices mutually agreed to with city officials and incorporated into state permitting requirements for new wells.