Regulatory

Proposed federal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rules are either an economic burden or an environmental necessity, according to millions of comments submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The shale gas patch is too risky a place for an electric utility to be dabbling with ratepayer money, public interest lawyers and industrial power consumers told Florida regulators considering Florida Power & Light Co.’s (FPL) proposal to take a stake in Oklahoma’s Woodford Shale.

Nearly 100 companies, practically everyone that matters in the U.S. businesses of natural gas production, pipeline transportation, gas distribution, gas storage, gas procurement for core residential and commercial customers, organizations representing industrial customers, and competitive retail electric and gas service businesses, have told FERC they don’t want their gas day to start at 4 a.m. CT.

In a potential blockbuster, lawmakers in the House and Senate have agreed to attach 68 bills on natural resources — namely on public lands and energy issues — to the nation’s annual defense authorization bill, which appears headed toward quick passage with strong bipartisan support.

Pipeline companies operating in Texas will soon have to swear that they are common carriers and provide supporting documents in order to obtain the “common carrier” classification, which confers condemnation authority, according to a rule change at the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

TransCanada Corp. has set out to obtain a speedy verdict on plans to overhaul and enlarge its pipeline network by brushing aside objections from natural gas distribution companies in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States.

Upending the natural gas day will not solve the regional problems of lack of pipeline capacity and, in fact, will undermine the reliability of deliveries, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said, responding to FERC’s proposed changes in gas scheduling aimed at serving electric power load (see Daily GPI, March 20).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reopening the comment period on a proposed rulemaking designed to limit speculative trading in the swaps markets.

Planned expansion of northbound routes for U.S. natural gas exports into Ontario and Quebec can proceed on schedule under a decision that the National Energy Board (NEB) handed down Friday (Nov. 28).