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A district judge has rejected Alaska’s challenge to the Clinton-era administration’s roadless rule, which bars the construction of roads on 58 million acres of forest lands that are seen as critical to energy exploration and production, logging and other commercial activities.

A district judge has rejected Alaska’s challenge to the Clinton-era administration’s roadless rule, which bars the construction of roads on 58 million acres of forest lands that are seen as critical to energy exploration and production, logging and other commercial activities.

More than half of the natural gas pipeline projects that entered service were in the Northeast during 2012, a year in which overall U.S. capacity investment slowed.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP is holding a binding open season for its Mariner South Pipeline, which is intended to transport export-grade propane and butane, from Lone Star NGL LLC’s storage and fractionation complex in Mont Belvieu, TX, to Sunoco Logistics’ terminal in Nederland, TX. The pipeline is to be available for other natural gas liquids and petroleum products depending on shipper interest, Sunoco said. Initial capacity is expected to be 200,000 b/d and could be scaled to support higher volumes as needed. The pipeline is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2015. For information, visit www.sunocologistics.com/marinersouth.

Located three counties due north of the wet gas window of the Marcellus Shale, and over a state line from expanding development in the Utica Shale, Mercer County, PA, nevertheless appears poised to benefit from development of both plays in the near future.

Canadian Natural Resources — Canada’s second-largest independent natural gas producer and its largest producer of heavy oils — is considering the sale of about 250,000 net acres of its Montney land base, about one-quarter of its total Montney acreage, President Steve Laut said Thursday during an earnings conference call.

An Ohio judge has upheld a class action lawsuit against a Utica Shale driller, a decision that could release hundreds of landowners from undeveloped oil and natural gas lease agreements.

The Missouri Public Service Commission continues to investigate a natural gas explosion in Kansas City, MO, on Feb. 19, which killed at least one person and injured more than a dozen others (see Daily GPI, Feb. 22). According to Kansas City Manager Troy Schulte, Heartland Midwest LLC did not have a permit to drill and excavate near the site. A Heartland crew contracted by Time Warner Cable Inc. was installing a fiber optic cable when it apparently punctured a two-inch diameter natural gas pipeline operated by Missouri Gas Energy.

With the domestic shale gale in full force, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the ranking Republican on the committee, vowed Tuesday to work together in a bipartisan effort to rethink energy regulation — but their differences on the issued appear unresolved.