Regulatory

Pennsylvania PUC Continues Probe of State's Retail NatGas Market

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) said it is moving forward with the second phase of its investigation into the competitiveness of the state's retail natural gas market. Read More

Alaska Oil Tax Cut Withstands Turnback Effort

An oil production tax break for Alaska producers that was adopted last year withstood an attempt by opponents to overturn it at the polls, with voters narrowly favoring keeping Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) provisions in place. Read More

BP Big Winner in Western GOM Lease Sale

Close to $110 million was submitted in high bids for 81 tracts offshore Texas in Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 238 on Wednesday, with most of the attention directed to the transboundary area of the U.S.-Mexico border and for Alaminos Canyon in the Lower Tertiary Trend. Read More

FERC's Moeller to Explore Centralized Trading Platform for Natural Gas

FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller plans to convene a meeting Sept. 18 "for interested parties to discuss ideas to facilitate and improve the way in which natural gas is traded, and to explore the concept of establishing a centralized trading platform for natural gas," the Commission said Tuesday. Read More

PG&E Goes to Court on Latest Criminal Indictment

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.. (PG&E) lawyers went to federal court Monday, responding to a superseding indictment charging the San Francisco-based combination utility with obstructing a safety investigation and violating the 1968 Pipeline Safety Act (PSA) related to the rupture in 2010 of a natural gas transmission pipeline that killed eight people in San Bruno, CA (see Daily GPI, July 31). Read More

Regulators Give PG&E $460M Rate Hike With Safety Ties

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., still facing multi-billion-dollar penalties for its natural gas system safety lapses, was granted a 2014 general rate increase of $460 million, or 6.9% above current rates, by California regulators Thursday with heavy implications for its current and future safety programs. This case is separate from still-pending pipeline penalty cases (see Daily GPI, May 7, 2013). Read More

DOE's LNG Review Protocol Reset Takes Effect

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has finalized changes it proposed earlier this year to its protocol for reviewing applications to export liquefied domestic natural gas to non-free trade agreement (FTA) nations. Read More

Tennessee Files FERC Application for Connecticut Expansion

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC has filed an application with FERC to construct its Connecticut Expansion Project, which is designed to provide more natural gas in the Northeast... Read More

Mexico Energy Reform Opportunities Begin to Take Shape

In ongoing energy reform, Mexico state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) will hold on to the majority of its currently producing oil fields, but in the months ahead, bids will be taken from parties that want to participate in the development of reserves in four packages outlined by Pemex. Read More

Trade Groups to BOEM: Open More of Offshore to Drilling

Eleven oil and gas trade associations have signed a letter urging the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to make new areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), available for leasing. Read More