Regulatory

A South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) hearing board last Saturday ordered the permanent closure and other steps related to Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) leaking natural gas storage well (see Daily GPI,Jan. 19).

Repsol Energy North America Corp., the largest shipper on Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLP (M&NE), filed a motion to intervene and protest with FERC last week after M&NE proposed several tariff revisions.

The safety of Canadian long-distance pipelines has improved but the National Energy Board (NEB) needs better information management systems to ensure good performance, a federal record-keeping agency said Tuesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld FERC’s authority to regulate pricing for demand response through wholesale electricity markets, overturning a previous decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

A top official in California’s Department of Conservation (DOC) earlier this week told local news media that an injection practice used by Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) at the time it discovered a natural gas storage well leak last October needs further review by state regulators. It is part of the state’s investigation of the prolonged leak, which has displaced thousands of local residents.

On a day in which Gov. Jerry Brown delivered his state-of-the-state address with no mention of energy or regulations, California’s agency overseeing oil and natural gas on Thursday released draft rules covering the use of water, steam and underground storage in oil/gas activities.

A federal appeals court has denied a motion by 26 states and several power generators to stay implementation of the Obama administration’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) until all legal challenges to the plan are resolved. Oral arguments are scheduled for early June.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Tuesday denied Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC’s (ACP) special use permit application to cross the Monongahela and George Washington national forests in West Virginia and Virginia as described in the pipeline’s proposed route.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) unveiled its long-awaited rules governing flaring and venting of associated natural gas on public and tribal lands on Friday.