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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed 29 bills into law last Tuesday, including SB 259, which the state’s chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) has derided as “a kissing cousin to forced pooling.”

Natural gas and oil production is vulnerable to decreasing water availability and operations in Arctic Alaska to thawing permafrost, both of which are potential impacts of climate change, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Williams’ board has voted to approve the company’s Bluegrass Pipeline project. The company has been engaged in development work on the proposed natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline, which has a targeted in-service date of late 2015. The Bluegrass Pipeline will connect supply from the Marcellus and Utica shales to growing petrochemical and export markets in the U.S. Gulf Coast (see Shale Daily, May 30; March 7). The pipeline also will connect NGL supply with the developing petrochemical market in the U.S. Northeast. Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP in May formalized joint-venture agreements tied to the project and related fractionation, storage and export projects.

Idaho regulators are looking at the latest integrated resource plan (IRP) of PacifiCorp’s Rocky Mountain Power unit, which assumes modest 1.1% annual growth and some changes in coal-fired power generation, including the retirement of a unit and replacement with a new natural gas-fired generation facility. Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain is the PacifiCorp operating utility in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Part of the IRP filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) calls for Rocky Mountain converting its Naughton Unit 3 coal-fired plant near Kemmerer, WY, to a natural gas-fired plant, and installing emissions control equipment on coal units in Utah (Hunter Unit 1) and Wyoming (Jim Bridger Units 3 and 4). The utility said that these plans are not final, due to the uncertainty of the future federal carbon tax legislation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final new standards for power plants. The PUC said it is taking comments from the public through Aug. 8.

State regulators continue to be the primary overseers of shale natural gas development, but because of the speed at which the boom shifted — and continues to shift — the energy marketplace, the dynamic environment has created challenges for the energy industry and all of the stakeholders involved, according to a report by Resources for the Future (RFF).

State regulators continue to be the primary overseers of shale natural gas development, but because of the speed at which the boom shifted — and continues to shift — the energy marketplace, the dynamic environment has created challenges for the energy industry and all of the stakeholders involved, according to a report by Resources for the Future (RFF).

Oil and natural gas severance taxes totaled $34.5 million in Kentucky in 2012 as the industry, which is centered in the eastern part of the state, continued its comeback from the economic crisis of 2008.

The Sand Hills and Southern Hills natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines have entered service, according to DCP Midstream, Phillips 66 and Spectra Energy Corp., which each own a one-third interest in the pipelines. The 720-mile Sand Hills is transporting NGL from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. The 800-mile Southern Hills is transporting NGL from production in the Midcontinent. “DCP Midstream will have an integrated NGL pipeline system, consisting of Sand Hills and Southern Hills as well as our interests in the Front Range and Texas Express pipelines, that connect our gathering and processing systems located in most of the major liquids-rich and oil-driven shale plays to growing Gulf Coast markets,” said DCP Midstream CEO Wouter van Kempen.

Inexpensive shale gas has lit a fire under Connecticut gas distribution utilities Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG), which have just filed a joint gas expansion plan with the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).