Today's Relevant Energy Links Courtesy of Consumer Energy Alliance:
The Register-Guard: A roundup of local news
Fifth Street Public Market owner Brian Obie says the Eugene City Council’s planned changes to its Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption program could derail his plans for a $54 million mixed-use project downtown. Obie signed an option on a 99-year lease with Lane County in 2013 on two acres of land on Sixth Street, in hopes of building a mixture of apartments and condominiums, shops and restaurants, and possible amenities ranging from perhaps a grocery store to a movie theater.
Oil and Gas Daily: Shell responds to federal decision on Alaskan waters
Shell said there are a series of contingencies to consider after a U.S. federal decision to reaffirm a lease for the arctic waters off the coast of Alaska. The Department of Interior this week affirmed a 2008 lease sale for exploration in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. The decision clears the way for a formal review of exploration plans in the region, which will include an environmental analysis.
Bloomberg: Record Gasoline Output to Curb Biggest U.S. Oil Glut in 85 Years
Refiners are poised to make gasoline at a record pace this year, keeping the biggest U.S. crude glut in more than 80 years from overflowing storage. They’re enjoying the best margins in two years as they finish seasonal maintenance of their plants before the summer driving season. They’ll increase output to meet consumer demand and they’ve added more than 100,000 barrels a day of capacity since last summer, when they processed the most oil on record.
U.S. News & World Report: Keystone XL Likely Not on the Table in Iran Nuclear Deal
Let the lobbying begin. One day after announcing a framework nuclear agreement with Iran, President Barack Obama now faces the unenviable task of winning Congress' blessing on the potential deal. "The battle is on here and in Iran," says Paul Sullivan, professor of economics at National Defense University.
Houston Chronicle: Pipeline projects arise as need grows to carry Canadian crude
With the Keystone XL pipeline caught up in a political stalemate, companies with links to Houston have stepped in to help Canadian crude find a way to market. The Keystone line is just one of several that could carry crude from Alberta's oil sands and from conventional plays to refineries in North America and beyond.
Newsweek: In California, farmers rely on wastewater to weather drought
For every barrel of oil Chevron produces in its Kern River oil field, another 10 barrels of salty wastewater come up with it. So Chevron is selling about 500,000 barrels of water per day, or 21 million gallons, back to the Cawelo Water District—the local water district that delivers water to farmers within a seven-mile slice of Kern County—at an undisclosed amount, but “essentially ‘at cost,’” according to Chevron spokesman Cameron Van Ast. In a time when freshwater in the Central Valley is selling at up to 10 times the typical cost, it’s a good deal for farmers.
The New Yorker: Weather underground
Until 2008, Oklahoma experienced an average of one to two earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater each year. (Magnitude-3.0 earthquakes tend to be felt, while smaller earthquakes may be noticed only by scientific equipment or by people close to the epicenter.) In 2009, there were twenty. The next year, there were forty-two. In 2014, there were five hundred and eighty-five, nearly triple the rate of California. Including smaller earthquakes in the count, there were more than five thousand. This year, there has been an average of two earthquakes a day of magnitude 3.0 or greater.
The Washington Times: Obama finalizes plans to ban oil and gas drilling in ‘undisturbed’ Alaskan refuge
President Obama issued his administration’s finalized recommendations late Friday to expand protected areas of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, drawing a furious response from the state’s Republican senators. In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama reiterated his intention to preserve the vast energy-rich tract and called on Congress to block about 12 million acres from oil and natural gas drilling.
Reuters: Obama asks Congress to widen Arctic refuge protections
The Obama administration on Friday finalized its recommendation to expand protected areas of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling on Congress to block about 12 million acres (5 million hectares) from oil and gas drilling. U.S. President Barack Obama, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner released by the White House, stood by his administration's earlier recommendation to preserve a wide swath of the state's Arctic refuge, setting up a likely battle with the Republican-led Congress over the oil-rich area.
Huffington Post: It's Time to Take Arctic Drilling Off the Table
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior swung the door wide open to drilling in the remote waters of the iconic Arctic Ocean when it announced that it was reaffirming controversial Bush-era leases for the Chukchi Sea – a lease sale referred to as Lease Sale 193.
Fuel Fix: Feds says Shell’s spill containment system works as company seeks Arctic drilling approval
Shell has successfully deployed its Arctic containment system in waters near Washington State as it prepares for potential drilling in the Chukchi Sea later this year. The company didn’t officially need the test, which was conducted over several days in Puget Sound. Its emergency containment system, carried and deployed from the Arctic Challenger barge, already won certification from the American Bureau of Shipping and the U.S. Coast Guard, years ago.
Washington Examiner: Obama solar energy plan for veterans faces resistance
A new White House initiative to train veterans for jobs in the solar energy industry could turn into a rout if its key federal solar energy subsidy is phased out on schedule next year — a problem for the industry is that it's dependent on the subsidy for hiring. The plan may also face challenges as the administration's plan for heavy energy industry regulation is coming under fire from courts, Congress and state governments.
Forbes: Senators Try To Stop The Coming Oil Train Wreck
Spearheaded by the Senators from Washington State, legislation just introduced in the United States Senate will finally address the rash of crude oil train wrecks and explosions that have skyrocketed over the last two years in parallel with the steep rise in the amount of crude oil transported by rail.
Reuters: California used 70 million gallons of water in HF in 2014
The practice has been criticized in the state, which is suffering from a drought so severe that Gov. Jerry Brown announced the first-ever mandatory 25 percent statewide reduction in water use Wednesday. “Hydraulic fracturing uses a relatively small amount of water — the equivalent of 514 households annually,” said Steven Bohlen, the state oil and gas supervisor.
The News & Observer: HF bill would repeal forced pooling
One of the most contentious policies related to fracking would be repealed in a bill introduced Thursday that seeks to end a practice known as “forced pooling” or “compulsory pooling.” The bill would not require property owners to consent to shale gas exploration under their land, as is currently required under North Carolina’s rarely-invoked 1945 oil-and-gas statute.
The Augusta Chronicle: Questions in the pipeline
Developers of a 360-mile petroleum pipeline from South Carolina to Florida plan to slice through parts of the Augusta-Aiken area along the Savannah River. But instead of following already-established utility easements along the route, the company plans to use the force of government to take private property from hundreds of landowners in Georgia and South Carolina.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Major Pennsylvania bat species ‘threatened’
Neal Kirby, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the industry submitted four rounds of comments against the listing of the bat, but hasn’t decided yet if it will file comments on the interim rules. He said the footprint of the oil and gas habitat on bat habitat is much less than that of forest management and other industries, and that the greatest threat to the bat is from the fungus, not human activities, like oil and gas development.
Pittsburgh Tribune: Companies explore deeper shale for greater yields of gas, liquids
Low natural gas prices that have companies balancing spending cuts with promises of ramped-up production are driving some new development in the Utica and Point Pleasant shale, where deeper wells can yield more gas and liquids.
WESA: Pipelines: The New Battleground Over Fracking
Forget the battles over the Keystone XL. Pipeline wars are now raging in Pennsylvania, where production is high and pipeline capacity is low. Marcellus Shale gas has the potential to alter the landscape of the global energy market. But right now a shortage of pipelines to get gas from the gas fields to consumers has energy companies eager to dig new trenches.
Summit County Voice: Widespread stream monitoring needed in HF zones
Gathering baseline water quality data from streams in fracking zones could help pinpoint impacts to drinking water, researchers at Penn State and the U.S. Geological Survey said after finding high levels of methane in a Pennsylvania stream.
State Impact: Are Marcellus drillers cheating the state? Agencies take a closer look
Gas drilling on state-owned land has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to Harrisburg. Private landowners have received millions more. But some companies have been accused of underpaying. Royalty disputes have led to several class action lawsuits and an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office.
Citizen’s Voice: Program needed to determine drilling’s impact
Pennsylvania still has declined to launch a comprehensive program to determine the impact widespread natural gas drilling on public health, even though many health care professionals across the Marcellus Shale fields have asked for such information.
Reuters: Clock keeps ticking toward North Dakota oil tax break
The clock kept ticking in March on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota's oil industry after a state-calculated average of the month's crude price fell below $52.59 per barrel. The state waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below an inflation-adjusted limit, set at $52.59 per barrel for 2015, for five consecutive months.
Grand Forks Herald: Lynn Helms: Setting the record straight about oil conditioning
As of April 1, oil producers in North Dakota are required to condition every barrel of Bakken crude oil to improve the safety of transporting the oil by rail. The North Dakota Industrial Commission unanimously approved the order in December, after months of science-based review and after holding a public hearing and providing for an extended public comment period.
Rapid City Journal: After two Montana breaks, scrutiny builds over federal pipeline regs
Two pipelines have dumped 70,000 gallons of crude into the nation’s longest free-flowing river in the last four years. What they have in common is that right up until breaking, both were considered safe. That “all clear” by regulators has sparked concern about whether the federal government is setting the bar too low for pipeline safety and ignoring destructive river conditions.
Casper Star Tribune: States have taken lead on HF
Colorado has completed multiple rounds of rule-making over more than a decade, with increasing intensity in recent years. Wyoming is in a race to the top with Colorado in claiming the mantle of the state with the most stringent regulations. North Dakota, Texas, and in fact all western states with sizeable oil and natural gas development had updated their rules well before the federal government jumped in. In fact, 99.97 percent of the permits to drill approved last year by the Interior Department were in states with recently updated fracking regulations, with just one well in a state currently updating its rules.
Houston Business Journal: Competing bills offer tax credits for waterless HF
Lawmakers rolled bills this week to encourage the conservation of water in the use of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, to drill for oil and gas in shale rock formations.
Star-Telegram: Barnett rig count climbs but remains in single digits
The number of rigs searching for natural gas in the Barnett Shale remained in the single digits this week, with six derricks drilling wells in North Texas. Tarrant County led the way with two rigs, and Clay, Denton, Jack and Wise counties reported one each, according to RigData, a Fort Worth company that monitors oil and gas field activity.
Gainsville Daily Register: Oil, gas trends changing, official says
“Within the U.S. and worldwide, the oil and gas business has an amazing ability to innovate itself,” Palma said. “We always find new technologies, we find new geography’s that were previously considered off limits and not commercial and through the hard work of the scientists and of the people on the ground have been able to make it economically over time.”
Greeley Tribune: Colorado investors look favorably to both traditional and green energy
While 73 percent of Colorado high-net-worth investors support fracking of shale deposits to develop oil and gas resources, 86 percent of them agree that the U.S. should invest in programs to increase energy efficiency, according to Morgan Stanley’s Investor Pulse Poll.
Cleveland Business: Ohio and other states slammed by environmentalists
In terms of managing its waste, much of the oil and gas industry is exempt from federal oversight, in part because of perceived adequate regulation at the state level. But a new report from environmentalists opposed to fracking for shale gas and oil contends that Ohio and other Appalachian states are dropping the ball by failing to manage oil and gas waste or to regulate it as they would other hazardous waste.
State Journal: Federal official praises Huntington development plans
Huntington officials explained their goals for increasing economic activity in their city and the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development said he fully supports them.
NBC WBAL-TV: Senate advances HF moratorium bill
The Maryland Senate gave preliminary approval Friday to a two-year moratorium on fracking. The bill's supporters want more time to study the potential health and environmental impacts of fracking.
Fifth Street Public Market owner Brian Obie says the Eugene City Council’s planned changes to its Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption program could derail his plans for a $54 million mixed-use project downtown. Obie signed an option on a 99-year lease with Lane County in 2013 on two acres of land on Sixth Street, in hopes of building a mixture of apartments and condominiums, shops and restaurants, and possible amenities ranging from perhaps a grocery store to a movie theater.
Oil and Gas Daily: Shell responds to federal decision on Alaskan waters
Shell said there are a series of contingencies to consider after a U.S. federal decision to reaffirm a lease for the arctic waters off the coast of Alaska. The Department of Interior this week affirmed a 2008 lease sale for exploration in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. The decision clears the way for a formal review of exploration plans in the region, which will include an environmental analysis.
Bloomberg: Record Gasoline Output to Curb Biggest U.S. Oil Glut in 85 Years
Refiners are poised to make gasoline at a record pace this year, keeping the biggest U.S. crude glut in more than 80 years from overflowing storage. They’re enjoying the best margins in two years as they finish seasonal maintenance of their plants before the summer driving season. They’ll increase output to meet consumer demand and they’ve added more than 100,000 barrels a day of capacity since last summer, when they processed the most oil on record.
U.S. News & World Report: Keystone XL Likely Not on the Table in Iran Nuclear Deal
Let the lobbying begin. One day after announcing a framework nuclear agreement with Iran, President Barack Obama now faces the unenviable task of winning Congress' blessing on the potential deal. "The battle is on here and in Iran," says Paul Sullivan, professor of economics at National Defense University.
Houston Chronicle: Pipeline projects arise as need grows to carry Canadian crude
With the Keystone XL pipeline caught up in a political stalemate, companies with links to Houston have stepped in to help Canadian crude find a way to market. The Keystone line is just one of several that could carry crude from Alberta's oil sands and from conventional plays to refineries in North America and beyond.
Newsweek: In California, farmers rely on wastewater to weather drought
For every barrel of oil Chevron produces in its Kern River oil field, another 10 barrels of salty wastewater come up with it. So Chevron is selling about 500,000 barrels of water per day, or 21 million gallons, back to the Cawelo Water District—the local water district that delivers water to farmers within a seven-mile slice of Kern County—at an undisclosed amount, but “essentially ‘at cost,’” according to Chevron spokesman Cameron Van Ast. In a time when freshwater in the Central Valley is selling at up to 10 times the typical cost, it’s a good deal for farmers.
The New Yorker: Weather underground
Until 2008, Oklahoma experienced an average of one to two earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater each year. (Magnitude-3.0 earthquakes tend to be felt, while smaller earthquakes may be noticed only by scientific equipment or by people close to the epicenter.) In 2009, there were twenty. The next year, there were forty-two. In 2014, there were five hundred and eighty-five, nearly triple the rate of California. Including smaller earthquakes in the count, there were more than five thousand. This year, there has been an average of two earthquakes a day of magnitude 3.0 or greater.
The Washington Times: Obama finalizes plans to ban oil and gas drilling in ‘undisturbed’ Alaskan refuge
President Obama issued his administration’s finalized recommendations late Friday to expand protected areas of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, drawing a furious response from the state’s Republican senators. In a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama reiterated his intention to preserve the vast energy-rich tract and called on Congress to block about 12 million acres from oil and natural gas drilling.
Reuters: Obama asks Congress to widen Arctic refuge protections
The Obama administration on Friday finalized its recommendation to expand protected areas of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling on Congress to block about 12 million acres (5 million hectares) from oil and gas drilling. U.S. President Barack Obama, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner released by the White House, stood by his administration's earlier recommendation to preserve a wide swath of the state's Arctic refuge, setting up a likely battle with the Republican-led Congress over the oil-rich area.
Huffington Post: It's Time to Take Arctic Drilling Off the Table
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior swung the door wide open to drilling in the remote waters of the iconic Arctic Ocean when it announced that it was reaffirming controversial Bush-era leases for the Chukchi Sea – a lease sale referred to as Lease Sale 193.
Fuel Fix: Feds says Shell’s spill containment system works as company seeks Arctic drilling approval
Shell has successfully deployed its Arctic containment system in waters near Washington State as it prepares for potential drilling in the Chukchi Sea later this year. The company didn’t officially need the test, which was conducted over several days in Puget Sound. Its emergency containment system, carried and deployed from the Arctic Challenger barge, already won certification from the American Bureau of Shipping and the U.S. Coast Guard, years ago.
Washington Examiner: Obama solar energy plan for veterans faces resistance
A new White House initiative to train veterans for jobs in the solar energy industry could turn into a rout if its key federal solar energy subsidy is phased out on schedule next year — a problem for the industry is that it's dependent on the subsidy for hiring. The plan may also face challenges as the administration's plan for heavy energy industry regulation is coming under fire from courts, Congress and state governments.
Forbes: Senators Try To Stop The Coming Oil Train Wreck
Spearheaded by the Senators from Washington State, legislation just introduced in the United States Senate will finally address the rash of crude oil train wrecks and explosions that have skyrocketed over the last two years in parallel with the steep rise in the amount of crude oil transported by rail.
Reuters: California used 70 million gallons of water in HF in 2014
The practice has been criticized in the state, which is suffering from a drought so severe that Gov. Jerry Brown announced the first-ever mandatory 25 percent statewide reduction in water use Wednesday. “Hydraulic fracturing uses a relatively small amount of water — the equivalent of 514 households annually,” said Steven Bohlen, the state oil and gas supervisor.
The News & Observer: HF bill would repeal forced pooling
One of the most contentious policies related to fracking would be repealed in a bill introduced Thursday that seeks to end a practice known as “forced pooling” or “compulsory pooling.” The bill would not require property owners to consent to shale gas exploration under their land, as is currently required under North Carolina’s rarely-invoked 1945 oil-and-gas statute.
The Augusta Chronicle: Questions in the pipeline
Developers of a 360-mile petroleum pipeline from South Carolina to Florida plan to slice through parts of the Augusta-Aiken area along the Savannah River. But instead of following already-established utility easements along the route, the company plans to use the force of government to take private property from hundreds of landowners in Georgia and South Carolina.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Major Pennsylvania bat species ‘threatened’
Neal Kirby, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the industry submitted four rounds of comments against the listing of the bat, but hasn’t decided yet if it will file comments on the interim rules. He said the footprint of the oil and gas habitat on bat habitat is much less than that of forest management and other industries, and that the greatest threat to the bat is from the fungus, not human activities, like oil and gas development.
Pittsburgh Tribune: Companies explore deeper shale for greater yields of gas, liquids
Low natural gas prices that have companies balancing spending cuts with promises of ramped-up production are driving some new development in the Utica and Point Pleasant shale, where deeper wells can yield more gas and liquids.
WESA: Pipelines: The New Battleground Over Fracking
Forget the battles over the Keystone XL. Pipeline wars are now raging in Pennsylvania, where production is high and pipeline capacity is low. Marcellus Shale gas has the potential to alter the landscape of the global energy market. But right now a shortage of pipelines to get gas from the gas fields to consumers has energy companies eager to dig new trenches.
Summit County Voice: Widespread stream monitoring needed in HF zones
Gathering baseline water quality data from streams in fracking zones could help pinpoint impacts to drinking water, researchers at Penn State and the U.S. Geological Survey said after finding high levels of methane in a Pennsylvania stream.
State Impact: Are Marcellus drillers cheating the state? Agencies take a closer look
Gas drilling on state-owned land has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to Harrisburg. Private landowners have received millions more. But some companies have been accused of underpaying. Royalty disputes have led to several class action lawsuits and an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general’s office.
Citizen’s Voice: Program needed to determine drilling’s impact
Pennsylvania still has declined to launch a comprehensive program to determine the impact widespread natural gas drilling on public health, even though many health care professionals across the Marcellus Shale fields have asked for such information.
Reuters: Clock keeps ticking toward North Dakota oil tax break
The clock kept ticking in March on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota's oil industry after a state-calculated average of the month's crude price fell below $52.59 per barrel. The state waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below an inflation-adjusted limit, set at $52.59 per barrel for 2015, for five consecutive months.
Grand Forks Herald: Lynn Helms: Setting the record straight about oil conditioning
As of April 1, oil producers in North Dakota are required to condition every barrel of Bakken crude oil to improve the safety of transporting the oil by rail. The North Dakota Industrial Commission unanimously approved the order in December, after months of science-based review and after holding a public hearing and providing for an extended public comment period.
Rapid City Journal: After two Montana breaks, scrutiny builds over federal pipeline regs
Two pipelines have dumped 70,000 gallons of crude into the nation’s longest free-flowing river in the last four years. What they have in common is that right up until breaking, both were considered safe. That “all clear” by regulators has sparked concern about whether the federal government is setting the bar too low for pipeline safety and ignoring destructive river conditions.
Casper Star Tribune: States have taken lead on HF
Colorado has completed multiple rounds of rule-making over more than a decade, with increasing intensity in recent years. Wyoming is in a race to the top with Colorado in claiming the mantle of the state with the most stringent regulations. North Dakota, Texas, and in fact all western states with sizeable oil and natural gas development had updated their rules well before the federal government jumped in. In fact, 99.97 percent of the permits to drill approved last year by the Interior Department were in states with recently updated fracking regulations, with just one well in a state currently updating its rules.
Houston Business Journal: Competing bills offer tax credits for waterless HF
Lawmakers rolled bills this week to encourage the conservation of water in the use of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, to drill for oil and gas in shale rock formations.
Star-Telegram: Barnett rig count climbs but remains in single digits
The number of rigs searching for natural gas in the Barnett Shale remained in the single digits this week, with six derricks drilling wells in North Texas. Tarrant County led the way with two rigs, and Clay, Denton, Jack and Wise counties reported one each, according to RigData, a Fort Worth company that monitors oil and gas field activity.
Gainsville Daily Register: Oil, gas trends changing, official says
“Within the U.S. and worldwide, the oil and gas business has an amazing ability to innovate itself,” Palma said. “We always find new technologies, we find new geography’s that were previously considered off limits and not commercial and through the hard work of the scientists and of the people on the ground have been able to make it economically over time.”
Greeley Tribune: Colorado investors look favorably to both traditional and green energy
While 73 percent of Colorado high-net-worth investors support fracking of shale deposits to develop oil and gas resources, 86 percent of them agree that the U.S. should invest in programs to increase energy efficiency, according to Morgan Stanley’s Investor Pulse Poll.
Cleveland Business: Ohio and other states slammed by environmentalists
In terms of managing its waste, much of the oil and gas industry is exempt from federal oversight, in part because of perceived adequate regulation at the state level. But a new report from environmentalists opposed to fracking for shale gas and oil contends that Ohio and other Appalachian states are dropping the ball by failing to manage oil and gas waste or to regulate it as they would other hazardous waste.
State Journal: Federal official praises Huntington development plans
Huntington officials explained their goals for increasing economic activity in their city and the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development said he fully supports them.
NBC WBAL-TV: Senate advances HF moratorium bill
The Maryland Senate gave preliminary approval Friday to a two-year moratorium on fracking. The bill's supporters want more time to study the potential health and environmental impacts of fracking.
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