Regulatory

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.

Voters in the town of Chelsea in Maine’s Kennebec County have approved the designation of a tax increment district that will generate revenue from natural gas transmission pipelines that the town plans to devote to economic development over the next 30 years.

FERC staff on Friday issued a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC’s proposed Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline gas expansion project.

Natural gas from the still-blooming Marcellus Shale is but a pipeline ride away from the neediest demand center in the country: the Northeast. But between Marcellus and market are numerous municipal officials, landowners and environmentalists who are skeptical of — if not downright hostile to — pipeline development. Why?