11-20-15

Calgary Herald by Chris Varcoe and Darcy Henton.  More corporate layoffs, oil prices sinking below $40 and a grim drilling forecast for the battered energy industry sparked a new round of anxiety and finger-pointing at the legislature Wednesday.

Two large Calgary-based companies, pipeline giant TransCanada Corp. and city-owned power utility Enmax Corp., confirmed they’re trimming more staff as layoffs continue to mount in Alberta.

Today's relevant energy links from Consumer Energy Alliance:

The Florida Times-Union: Opponents, advocates of offshore drilling along Georgia coast try to sway federal energy official
The possibility of oil wells off Georgia’s coast brought advocates and opponents to a state office building Thursday for the chance to sway the federal official who’ll make decisions on testing and drilling. The panel discussion was organized by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a nationwide group of truckers, manufacturers and other energy users that claims 12,000 supporters in Georgia.
 
Savannah Morning News: Offshore-drilling supporters, opponents vent to fed official 
The possibility of oil wells off Georgia’s coast brought advocates and opponents to a state office building Thursday for the chance to convince the federal official who’ll decide about testing and drilling.
 
World News Report: Opponents, advocates of offshore drilling along Georgia coast try to sway federal energy official 
The possibility of oil wells off Georgia’s coast brought advocates and opponents to a state office building Thursday for the chance to sway the federal official who’ll make decisions on testing and drilling. The panel discussion was organized by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a nationwide group of truckers, manufacturers and other energy users that claims 12,000 supporters in Georgia.
 
WRVA-Richmond: The Jimmy Barrett Show
 
1410 WIZM: La Crosse Talk with Mike Hayes 
 
Dayton Business Journal: Good news for homeowners this winter 
There is good news for homeowners this winter as heating bills are projected to be 10 percent lower than last year. That's thanks to America’s ongoing energy revolution in which oil and natural gas has been flowing out of U.S. shale formations, boosting inventories to record highs heading into winter.
 
Electric Energy Online: Department of Energy Releases Final Environmental Impact Statement for Largest Clean Energy Infrastructure Project in U.S. Plains & Eastern 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission project, marking an important step towards the construction of America's largest clean energy project.
 
Consumer Energy Alliance: CEA Holds Offshore Energy Forum in Atlanta
Today, Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) hosted the 2015 Atlantic Energy Forum in Atlanta, Georgia featuring Abigail Ross Hopper, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, state officials, and members of the business and environmental community.
 
UPI: No drilling in the Atlantic, regional parties say
City officials and business leaders visited Washington, D.C., to pressure the White House to keep Atlantic basins off limits to energy explorers. The U.S. Interior Department in February released a draft proposal for 2017-22 for access to federal waters. Ten leases are planned for the Gulf of Mexico, three for offshore Alaska and one, a debut, for waters in the Atlantic.
 
The Hill: East Coast leaders tell Obama to reject offshore drilling in Atlantic
Today, a group of business representatives, local government officials and coastal leaders from towns along the Eastern Seaboard arrived in Washington with a clear message to the president: They don't want oil drilling off their coast, and they want to make sure their concerns are being heard in the White House.
 
The Hill: Top coal exec slams 'destroyer' Obama, power plant rules
A top coal executive and frequent critic of Obama administration environmental regulations will slam the president Thursday as a “destroyer” of the coal industry and hit his key climate rule as “blatantly illegal.” “There is no doubt that the administration of President Obama is the greatest destroyer and enemy of available, reliable, affordable electricity that the United States has every seen,” Robert Murray, the president and CEO of Murray Energy Corp., will say in a Thursday speech, according to an advanced copy provided to The Hill.
 
Forbes: More Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas Sanctions Carbon Capture and Storage
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an evolving technology that can capture 90% of the CO2 emissions released from the use of fossil fuels in power generation and industrial processes, thereby preventing CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
 
Fuel Fix: From space travel to video games, Big Oil pulls tech collaborators from a range of industries
These days, Big Oil’s arsenal of gadgets includes plenty of tech developed by industry outsiders, like robots designed by robots, MRI scanners and satellites that can see subtle gravitational changes within the earth. But even so, it still takes oil companies too long to adopt technologies that emerge outside the energy sector, Royal Dutch Shell’s top technology executive said on Thursday.
 
EIA: Passenger travel accounts for most of world transportation energy use
The transportation of people and goods accounts for about 25% of all energy consumption in the world. Passenger transportation, in particular light-duty vehicles, accounts for most transportation energy consumption—light-duty vehicles alone consume more than all freight modes of transportation, such as heavy trucks, marine, and rail.
 
Bloomberg: Saudi Oil Minister Says OPEC with Others to Stabilize Market
Saudi Arabia is working with other OPEC members and producers from outside the group to stabilize the market, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said. The global economy is going through an unstable period, al-Naimi said. Crude demand is expected to rise by 1 million barrels a day every year in this decade, and the world requires more investments in oil to compensate for declining recovery rates, he said.
 
OilPrice.com: Forget Keystone XL, TransCanada to Invest More Than $3 Billion Here
The U.S. rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline may have been a disappointment for TransCanada Corp., the company that wanted to build it, but it wasn’t the only potentially lucrative project in the company’s future. President Obama announced Nov. 6 that he was rejecting TransCanada’s proposal to build the 1,179-mile pipeline that would have transported 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-laden crude oil from Canada’s oil sands fields to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Fairbanks Daily News Miner: Legislators to discuss Interior Alaska oil basin potential
The state Senate Oil and Gas Tax Credit Working Group will be hosting a meeting this Friday. The meeting includes presentations from the Alaska Department of Revenue and the Department of Natural Resources to review the state’s efforts to promote development of oil and gas.
 
Alaska Dispatch News: Arctic investment fund attracts $125 million
Pt Capital, an Anchorage-based private equity firm investing exclusively in four Arctic countries, announced this week that it attracted more than $125 million to its inaugural fund. Pt Arctic Fund I requires a minimum investment of $10 million and promises a compounded annual return of at least 20 percent, according to its brochure, filed in November with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
 
Energy Global: Refiners triple California profits, says Consumer Watchdog
The three major refiners that provide detailed profit information reported their best ever year to date from oil refining in California. Each company has, at least, tripled their average historical profits in the third quarter, according to Consumer Watchdog analysis.
 
Aspen Daily News: BLM leans toward canceling oil and gas leases on Thompson
The Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS)Wednesday that put 65 existing oil and gas leases on White River National Forest land under the microscope. The agency found that 25 leases in the controversial Thompson Divide area must be either wholly or partially cancelled.
 
Midland Reporter-Telegram: Low oil prices continue to hammer Permian oil activity
Low oil prices continue to hammer the Permian Basin’s oil and gas economy. Amarillo Economist Karr Ingham reports the Texas Permian Basin Petroleum Index posted its 10th consecutive monthly decline, with the September index 26.6 percent below September 2014. The index peaked last November.
 
Dallas Business Journal: Ex-Dallas mayor Ron Kirk takes job as pitchman for LNG industry
Two liquefied natural gas export terminals are under construction in Texas, but if a newly-formed group has its way there will be several more coming. Former Dallas Mayor and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk is taking the helm as chairman of a new group named "Texans for LNG."
 
Amarillo Globe News: Falling gas prices help consumers
With gas prices falling at historic rates, households are expected to save $700 on average this year and see lower prices for goods and travel at levels not seen since 2007 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
KFOR News 4: Big changes coming for oil and gas companies in Oklahoma following massive earthquakes
Many Oklahomans were awakened Thursday morning by the largest earthquake the state has seen this year. A 4.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded near Cherokee around1:42 a.m. Many people called the KFOR newsroom saying they felt it in the metro, down south near the Red River, and up near Tulsa.
 
Plain Dealer: Utica shale boom moving closer to reality, CSU economists predict
The enormous productivity of Ohio's shale gas industry has done more than drive down gas prices and create jobs on drilling rigs in rural Ohio. Shale gas well development over the last four years, though now at a crawl because of low prices, has already set the stage for a petrochemical and plastics manufacturing boom.
 
Newsnet 5 Cleveland: Gas prices expected to stay low into New Year due to fracking and China's economy
Low gas prices are expected to stay through the New Year, thanks to an abundance of oil from fracking and China's lackluster economy. That's according to a Kent State University assistant finance professor.
 
The Beaufort Gazette: Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling in Washington to oppose offshore drilling
Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling was in Washington, D.C., this week to oppose offshore drilling and testing for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean. Keyserling was part of a group of coastal municipal leaders in the nation's capital to meet with federal officials ahead of an updated proposal on offshore drilling expected from President Barack Obama's administration early next year.
 
West Virginia Record: Bill proposed to ban Marcellus Shale export to other countries
A bill in Congress has been proposed that could ban the export of Marcellus Shale gas to other countries. Retired Capt. James McCormick, the State Program Director of Vets4Energy, said the bill was being kicked around in Congress, along with the bill to lift the crude oil ban that was passed earlier this year.
 
StateImpact Pennsylvania: Gas processing plants reach settlement with EPA over alleged violations
The owners of five Pennsylvania natural gas processing plants have reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly failing to take measures to guard against spills and leaks on their sites in McKean and Warren Counties, the EPA said on Thursday.

Miami Herald: A debate over how to brighten solar power’s future in Florida
When Simon Rose looks around his North Grove neighborhood, a Miami enclave of manicured lawns where meticulously renovated older homes mix with newly constructed mini mansions, he doesn’t see a swanky neighborhood. He sees a power grid fueled by rooftop solar panels.