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Compressed natural gas (CNG) gained more fans along the East Coast last week, while the use of CNG vehicles by a major rental car operator also was launched.

While other proposals regarding hydraulic fracturing (fracking) stayed immobile, the California Senate Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday moved on a strictly partisan vote of 5-3 a proposed bill (SB 1054) that would require exploration and production (E&P) companies to notify surrounding property owners of their plans to employ fracking ahead of starting work. The industry is opposed to pre-notification on proprietary grounds.

Focusing on oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) has paid off for small exploration and production (E&P) companies, according to Moody’s Investors Service, as they are expected to gain from rapid production and reserve growth.

While Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) continues to pay a heavy price in state regulatory penalties and fines for its response to the San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion, the San Francisco-based utility still struggles with an intensive effort to modernize its gas system recordkeeping.

From 2005 through 2011 the share of natural gas in the Texas power generation market declined while the use of out-of-state coal increased, causing a $7.7 billion economic loss to the Lone Star State, according to a new study. Texas is, after all, the country’s top producing state for natural gas, the study authors said, and the decline of its use in Texas runs counter to national trends.

While its investments with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in Barnett and Utica shale gas and oil plays have been widely publicized, Paris-based Total SA also is quietly investing in a major research and development (R&D) project looking at in-ground ways to develop oil shale, an unrealized dream of energy independence that the industry and some policymakers have flirted with for decades.

Endeavour International Corp. said it plans to spend 2012 focusing on developing its offshore oil assets and ramping up production in the North Sea while it waits to see the results from tight oil test wells drilled into the Heath Shale play in Montana.

U.S. household expenditures for natural gas this winter are on track to be the lowest in nine years, while consumption is poised to finish the 2011-2012 heating season at a 10-year low, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

While Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) is making progress in creating a “safety-first culture” in its natural gas pipeline operations, in past years the combination utility lost its safety edge with the merger of its electricity and natural gas utility operations, according to Nick Stavropoulos, PG&E executive vice president of gas operations.