Regulatory

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday nominated state Inspector General Bruce Beemer to serve as attorney general (AG). The nomination comes after Kathleen Kane was convicted on Monday of felony perjury charges for leaking grand jury testimony to a Philadelphia newspaper. She resigned as AG on Tuesday. Kane sparred at times with the oil and gas industry, filing criminal charges against XTO Energy Inc. for a spill at a drilling site and a wide-ranging lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy Corp. for deducting post-production costs from royalty checks (see Shale Daily,Aug. 5,Dec. 9, 2015). Her first deputy, Bruce Castor Jr., was sworn in as acting AG on Wednesday. Wolf has the authority to appoint Kane’s successor. The Senate must confirm Beemer’s appointment, which it’s expected to do quickly. He has the backing of Republican Senate leadership, Wolf’s office said. Beemer formerly served as first deputy in the AG’s office prior to Kane’s tenure. When she was elected he stayed, but he eventually left after testifying against her. Kane’s replacement will only serve a short tenure as a new AG is to be elected by voters in November.

Continued reliance on natural gas for thermal bitumen extraction will severely stunt the currently expected growth of Alberta oilsands production, the industry has been warned.

Iroquois Gas Transmission System LP filed a settlement offer with FERC on Thursday, agreeing to lower its rates for shippers in three phases over the next two years and promising not to raise them through August 2020.

Two Gulf of Mexico lease sales, tentatively scheduled for 2018, are undergoing more scrutiny with four public scoping meetings in September, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said.

California regulators on Thursday set the penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for its past failures to keep proper records of its distribution pipeline system in cases dating back several years. At least one regulator expressed concerns of ongoing safety problems at the giant utility.

Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco) has filed at FERC for its Gulf Connector Project, a two-phase expansion of the pipeline’s system in Texas and Louisiana. Capacity would be used to deliver natural gas to two Gulf Coast liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on Wednesday dealt a setback to the proposed Access Northeast pipeline project when it overturned a gas-electric harmonization plan approved by the state’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU).

An oil/natural gas industry-backed measure to make it more difficult to amend Colorado’s state constitution has qualified for the November ballot, the Colorado secretary of state’s office said.

Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) is in the early stages of planning to convert two coal-fired power generation units at its 1,387 MW Rogers Energy Complex (formerly the Cliffside Steam Station) in North Carolina’s Cleveland and Rutherford counties to co-fired generation — coal and natural gas — the company told NGI. The Charlotte, NC-based utility expects to have the modifications completed in 2019, but it hasn’t released cost estimates or other details. DEC’s plans appear to hinge on Public Service Company of North Carolina (PSNC) receiving approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) for a proposal to expand its natural gas pipeline system to increase transportation capacity to the Rogers facility. PSNC is also being tightlipped about its plans. The agreement with DEC “is confidential in nature and a proprietary trade secret,” PSNC said in an NCUC filing [No. G-5, Sub 569].