Regulatory

County sheriff’s officers cleared an expanded encampment of protesters Thursday from private land near the disputed $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline construction corridor in south-central North Dakota.

Williams Partners LP is delaying the target in-service date for its Atlantic Sunrise expansion project to mid-2018, with partial service on the project starting in late 2017, it said Friday.

Retail natural gas rates in Washington state are decreasing at two of the state’s major utility distribution companies, following actions Thursday by state regulators. Two other gas providers will have slight increases.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has voted to reduce Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania’s revenue increase request, approving a settlement that would increase annual operating revenues by $35 million. Columbia filed its request earlier this year seeking a $55 million revenue increase to help fund upgrades of its underground distribution infrastructure and training for pipeline safety and regulatory compliance (see Daily GPI, March 23). The PUC said the approved settlement would increase an average residential customer’s bill from $77.33 to $83.05 per month, or by about 7%. Columbia provides natural gas service to roughly 421,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in parts of 26 counties. Since 2007, the company has invested nearly $1.1 billion to modernize and expand its distribution system. The settlement also includes a program that provides alternative options to finance the costs of natural gas extension projects for large commercial and industrial customers.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) said it “is concerned” that two proposed Appalachia-to-Southeast natural gas pipelines would traverse steep slopes subject to erosion, and it has asked its backers to submit additional information as it considers issuing special use permits for the projects.

Connecticut is abandoning a request for proposals (RFP) for natural gas pipeline/storage capacity and liquefied natural gas (LNG) resources as support for project cost sharing among New England states has fallen away. Hydropower and renewables are slated to get more business from the Constitution State.

ExxonMobil Corp. planned an immediate appeal after the New York Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the supermajor’s auditor to comply with a subpoena to hand over documents about its accounting practices.

With implications for oil/natural gas drilling as well as mining, the U.S. District Court for Colorado on Tuesday agreed with various environmental groups that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) needs to protect two threatened wildflowers that live solely on an oil shale formation in Colorado and Utah.

Antero Resources Corp. has filed at FERC to intervene in Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC’s request for a rehearing of the Commission’s order authorizing the construction and operation of the Broad Run Expansion Project, arguing in support of the lower fuel rates TGP has proposed.