Regulatory

Quebec’s public utilities board has thrown its weight behind distribution company demands for national protection against the costs of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East partial conversion of its natural gas Mainline to oil service.

The Supreme Court is slated on Monday to hear oral arguments in a case dating back to the early 2000s that could define FERC’s authority to regulate natural gas and other markets.

Emboldened by the first Republican majorities in both houses of Congress since 2006, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) has reintroduced the “Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act,” (HR 161), which would establish a set deadline for federal and state agencies to approve pipeline applications.

The British Columbia (BC) government has set out to appease environmental and native critics by banning a possibility that no one in the industry has raised: converting to oil service pipelines that were originally built for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals.

BP America Inc.’s response to a November 2008 telephone call between two members of its “Texas team,” during which it was suggested the team was attempting to manipulate the natural gas market at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC), was appropriate and helped detect and deter potentially manipulative conduct, according to rebuttal testimony filed at FERC by the producer Wednesday.

A final version of three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposals to cut carbon pollution from the power sector, which some had anticipated as early as this week, will not be completed until the middle of summer, according to Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.

While making little mention of energy, except for renewables, and totally ignoring hydraulic fracturing (fracking), California Gov. Jerry Brown left no doubt in his state-of-the-state speech Monday that climate change will continue to dominate in his unprecedented fourth four-year term as governor. He called for dramatic increases in renewable energy use.

Highlighted by an oil/natural gas “renaissance” and an unparalleled infrastructure buildout, the U.S. energy sector is now a world leader, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute (API), which included contributions from trade associations for all of the nation’s major energy sources.

Colorado regulators opened the new year on Monday by approving rule and policy changes that they characterized as significantly increasing penalties for oil and natural gas operators violating state regulations.