Regulatory

With the advent of more transportation use of natural gas, albeit without any added supplies from shale gas development, the state of New York on Wednesday rolled out some proposed new rules for the use and storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The new rules are effective Feb. 26.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday held its first hearing on a bill that would require the Department of Energy to make decisions on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications within 45 days after environmental review documents are published, and the debate was strikingly similar to one held in the House prior to passage of a nearly identical bill a day earlier (see Daily GPI, Jan. 28).

A bill that would require the Department of Energy (DOE) to make decisions on applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) within 30 days, without specifying details for federal officials to follow, passed in a bipartisan landslide in House on Wednesday and has moved to the Senate.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting small businesses, governments and not-for-profit organizations to provide advice and recommendations about the potential impacts of upcoming standards for emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) from sources in the oil and natural gas sector.

Under a citation program created in the wake of the San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline failure, California regulators on Friday said their staff has cited Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for multiple gas system violations, and to a lesser extent Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas).

A draft strategy for offshore oil and natural gas leasing, released Tuesday by Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper, includes for the first time a portion of the Mid- and South Atlantic outer continental shelf (OCS) from Virginia to Georgia.

The U.S. House of Representatives, by a 241-169 vote, agreed to consider a bill requiring the Department of Energy (DOE) to make decisions on certain applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) within 30 days, without specifying any additional details for the department to follow.

If the Obama administration’s plan to reduce carbon pollution is to be successful, it will need to rely on natural gas and existing and substantially expanded delivery infrastructure, FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur told a National Press Club audience in Washington Tuesday.

Interstate natural gas pipelines should not be permitted by FERC to track and recover the capital costs of pipeline modernization through a surcharge mechanism proposed by the agency, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said in comments filed Monday.