The U.S. Energy Department on July 6 issued a final long-term order authorizing the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export project and the associated Pacific Connector pipeline in Oregon. The order authorizes the facility to export up to 1.08 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas as LNG to nations with which the U.S…....
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 6 ordered Energy Transfer Partners LP to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline and empty it of oil until the completion of an environmental review, which is expected to take 13 months. The court found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the…...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on June 30 ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cannot indefinitely delay requests for rehearing of cases under the Natural Gas Act by issuing tolling orders, which extend the 30-day time period for the agency to act on the petitions. The 10-1 ruling concluded that…...
The Michigan Public Service Commission on June 30 rejected Enbridge’s request for a declaratory ruling that it has authority to replace a pipeline segment under the Straits of Mackinac under a 1953 order approving the Line 5 pipeline. The commission found that the Line 5 project differs significantly from the pipeline approved in 1953. Different…...
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management on June 26 released the final environmental review for a new integrated activity plan for the 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The preferred alternative would open as much as 18.7 million acres, or about 82 percent of the reserve, to oil and gas development, undoing Obama-era protections…...
The U.S. daily natural gas delivered to facilities that produce liquefied natural gas for export fell to less than 4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by far in June, less than a half of the record 9.8 Bcf/d in late March 2020, according to a June 23 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration…....
As the pandemic continues to unfold, utility regulators across the U.S. are focusing on the core issues of providing relief for the hardest-hit customers and reviving the economy with the help of utility initiatives. To date, several states have extended disconnection moratoriums and implemented customer relief programs, while others are examining how additional spending by the utilities could provide new jobs while minimizing customer bill impacts in the future.
Xcel Energy Inc. on June 17 filed a plan with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to invest almost $3 billion in accelerated and incremental projects in an effort to help the state’s economy recover from the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal follows the commission’s request for information from electric and gas utilities…...
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on June 17 announced that this year’s distribution of impact fees collected from natural gas producers totaled $200 million, nearly 43 million lower than the prior year. The commission attributed the change to the lower average price of natural gas in 2019, resulting in lower impact fee payment for each…...
New England’s average wholesale electricity prices dropped by 40 percent to $28 per megawatthour during the 2019-2020 winter from $47 per megawatthour in the previous winter, according to a June 10 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas-fired generators set the price of electricity more often compared with previous winters because of the…...
U.S. summer electricity demand, from June through August, is expected to total 998 billion kilowatthours, a 5 percent drop compared to 2019 and the lowest value since 2009, according to a June 10 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Retail electricity sales in the commercial and industrial sectors are expected to decline 12 percent…...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 9 adopted a rule that forbids natural gas projects from commencing construction until the agency acts on rehearing requests. The move intends to protect stakeholders, including landowners affected by pipeline projects. The rule attempts to address some of the concerns raised in a lawsuit before the U.S. Court…...
