1 dead, 5 missing after massive Pa. gas blast

{Image: Rich Schultz / AP: Firefighters battle a blaze sparked by an explosion in Allentown, Pa., that left at least six people unaccounted for.}

msnbc.com staff and news service report

"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — One person was dead and five were missing after a massive natural gas explosion demolished and set fire to homes and sent flames hundreds of feet into the air in eastern Pennsylvania.

Allentown fire Chief Robert Scheirer said the victim lived in a two-story row house that exploded Wednesday night. An elderly couple in their 70s lived in the home, but Scheirer says the condition of the body prevented positive identification.

Five other people were still unaccounted for after the blast that leveled two houses. The cause of the explosion is unclear.

The fire that burned for hours has been put out, and 500 to 600 residents who were evacuated are returning to their homes.

Allentown fire Chief Robert Scheirer said early Thursday that the fire consumed an entire row of homes. He predicted eight will be lost and another 16 damaged." More>>>>

Council votes to ban hydrofracking

BuffaloNews.com

"The Common Council has voted to ban any form of natural gas extraction in Buffalo, including a controversial mining technique known as hydrofracking.

Ban supporters admit this afternoon's unanimous vote is largely symbolic, given the fact that no "fracking" projects have been proposed in Buffalo. But they insist the ban could be a catalyst in spurring similar actions in municipalities in New York, Pennsylvania and other states where gas-rich Marcellus Shale is located." More>>>>

Texas natural-gas plant ablaze

{Image, NBC News: "Flames and smoke pour out of a chemical plant Tuesday in Mont Belvieu, Texas."}

NBC News and msnbc.com

"MONT BELVIEU, Texas — Explosions and fire ripped through a Houston-area natural-gas processing plant, leaving one person unaccounted for Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Explosions were heard about 12:15 p.m. at Enterprise Products on Sun Oil Road in Mont Belvieu, about 35 miles east of Houston, NBC station KPRC reported."...

..."Mont Belvieu is a major natural gas storage and processing hub sitting atop a salt dome formation. The natural gas industry stores more volatile hydrocarbons there than anywhere else in the world, NBC News said. The area is like an egg-shaped mound on the coastal prairie.

The nearby community of Barbers Hill, with population 200, was bought out by the industry during the 1990s after a series of explosions at Warren Petroleum.

NBC News cited geologists with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas saying salt dome storage poses three risks: A pipeline or well may leak and cause an explosion; toxic chemicals stored in the domes could leak into local water supplies; or land and aquifers may be contaminated by salt water left from carving and refilling the caverns." More>>>>

Clean air rules seen adding 1.5 million jobs through 2015

(Reuters) -"Looming U.S. rules that power utilities face on air pollution could create nearly 1.5 million jobs over the next five years, according to a report." More>>>>

Report details drilling damage to forest

Charleston Gazette

By Ken Ward Jr.

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A natural gas drilling operation in the Fernow Experimental Forest in Tucker County killed dozens of trees, damaged roads and eroded the land, according to a new U.S. Forest Service scientific report.

The report provides one of the most detailed glimpses so far of the potential impacts from the boom in West Virginia's natural gas industry, and offers potential lessons for policymakers and regulators trying to grapple with the growth in drilling.

"It sort of opened our eyes to the issues," said Thomas M. Schuler, an agency forester and one of the report's authors. "This is an issue that is affecting West Virginia, Pennsylvania, parts of the northeast and other parts of the country."' More>>>>

Gas drilling oversight measure rejected in CO

By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press

"DENVER—A gas-drilling technique that has raised environmental fears among some won't see more oversight in Colorado after a Republican-led House panel on Monday rejected an idea to step up reporting of water complaints that may be related to drilling.

The measure would have revived annual reports to the Colorado Legislature from the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission on the number of water-quality complaints it received. The measure also would have required state health authorities to report to lawmakers the results of a federal study due out this year on a gas extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."' More>>>>

Court docs: industry may have helped write Martinez order delaying environmental regulations

KUNM

Jim Williams (2011-01-27)

"SANTA FE, NM (kunm) - Attorneys for dairy producers crafted language for Gov. Susana Martinez's executive order putting off new environmental regulations, documents related to a Supreme Court case indicate."...

"Our attorneys (for the Dairy Group) Dal Moellenberg and TJ Trujillo of Gallagher & Kennedy drafted some language for the ex. order. We all assumed the environmentalist groups would sue and obviously they have."

Click here for documents>>>>

More>>>>

New Mexico to publish building coder regs; Sierra Club to drop lawsuit

KUNM Government Project

"Marjorie Childress

In the wake of a New Mexico Supreme Court decision last week, the state of New Mexico has reached an agreement with the Sierra Club to publish new building codes in the state registry. In return, the Sierra Club will drop a lawsuit it filed earlier this month to force the publication of the new codes." More>>>>

Industry group urges Oscar judges to steer clear of 'Gasland'

Greenwire

Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter

"The oil and gas industry doesn't want a golden Oscar statuette to grace the mantle of "Gasland" filmmaker Josh Fox.

An industry group sent a letter today to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, saying that a litany of errors in the anti-drilling film should render it ineligible for best documentary feature.

"The filmmaker alternates between misstating and outright ignoring basic and verifiable facts related to the impact of these activities on the health and welfare of humans, wildlife and the environment," said Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth (EID), in a letter today to the academy.

But Fox says his documentary is "backed up by facts 100 percent," and it is the industry that perpetuates falsehoods.

"Gasland exposes what they've been doing and they don't like it," Fox said in an interview today. "EID is a smear organization, a PR firm that has nothing to do with reality."

EID is an industry group formed to fight federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, a process portrayed in the film as a central danger of oil and gas drilling. The group is closely affiliated with the Independent Petroleum Association of America, where Fuller is vice president of government affairs." More>>>>

Natural gas, electronics groups sue EPA over emission-reporting rules

Greenwire

Gabriel Nelson, E&E reporter

"New federal regulations that require companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions have drawn several new lawsuits from electronics companies and the natural gas industry, which argue that there are flaws in the way U.S. EPA designed the program.

Trade groups such as the American Gas Association and the Semiconductor Industry Association, as well as the manufacturing giant 3M Co. and natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp., want the agency to rethink various elements of the reporting rules that were finalized at the beginning of December. In total, seven groups filed petitions in federal court before yesterday's deadline for legal challenges.

The requirements, ordered by Congress to help policymakers and the public understand where the nation's greenhouse gas emissions originate, are separate from the controversial EPA regulations that are meant to curb greenhouse gases from cars, light-duty trucks and industrial facilities. But the newest spate of petitions, filed Friday and Monday, shows there are still some lingering disagreements about the best way to get a handle on the nation's emissions inventory.

Oil and gas groups are challenging the new requirements for drilling, production and processing facilities, while electronics groups want EPA to rethink the rules for users of fluorinated greenhouse gases.

Most other industries are required to submit their first reports to EPA in less than two months, but the rules for these two sectors were delayed for a year after the agency decided it needed more time to craft the requirements.

Oil and gas facilities and users of fluorinated greenhouse gases were required to begin keeping data on Jan. 1. Their first annual reports to EPA are due in March of next year (E&ENews PM, Nov. 9)." More>>>>

GOP walks out on oil, gas debate

Energy-panel chairman Egolf scoffs at drama, denies playing politics

Trip Jennings | The New Mexican
Posted: Monday, January 31, 2011

"Six Republican lawmakers marched out of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Monday, the first skirmish of what could turn into a war over environmental and energy legislation this legislative session.

Provoking the GOP lawmakers' ire was the committee chairman, Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, whom they accused of playing political games by dressing up propaganda as facts during what was billed as an informational session on the state's oil-and-gas industry.

"This is something — for the chairman of the committee to give a black eye to the industry," Rep. William Gray, R-Artesia, said of Monday's meeting.

Egolf responded in turn, accusing the GOP lawmakers of overdramatizing the pique they felt.

"They're doing a little show for you," Egolf said of the GOP walkout. "This is not real. This is just them trying to feed into this absurd notion that we're unfair on the committee. It's ridiculous."

Monday's drama served to illustrate the potential for combustible debates, and also for partisan gridlock, on a key legislative committee that is likely to hear important as well as controversial pieces of legislation during this year's 60-day session. A similar walkout in the future, for example, could stymie legislation on the 12-member committee, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Based on Monday's theatrics and the legislation likely to wind up before the committee in coming weeks, future conflict seems assured.

One bill likely to come before the committee would repeal greenhouse-gas emissions rules that were adopted in the final months of former Gov. Bill Richardson's administration. Meanwhile, representatives of the state's oil-and-gas industry have publicly said they're worried that Egolf's chairmanship of the committee might complicate Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's desire to roll back environmental regulations promulgated during Richardson's years in office. " More>>>>

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Fracking companies injected 32M gallons of diesel, House probe finds

E&E News PM
01/31/2011

Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter

"Drilling service companies have injected at least 32 million gallons of diesel fuel underground as part of a controversial drilling technique, a Democratic congressional investigation has found.

Injecting diesel as part of "hydraulic fracturing" is supposed to be regulated by U.S. EPA. But an agency official told congressional investigators that EPA had assumed that the use of diesel had stopped seven years ago.

"The industry has been saying they stopped injecting toxic diesel fuel into wells," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who led the inquiry. "But our investigation showed this practice has been continuing in secret and in apparent violation of the [Safe Drinking Water Act]."

Waxman calculated the amount of diesel based on voluntary disclosures from "service companies" like Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger, which do the "frack jobs" for well operators. On Monday, Waxman and fellow committee members Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) shared their findings in an open letter to EPA officials." More>>>>

KUNM: Republicans storm out of House Energy committee

KUNM

Marjorie Childress

"During a question and answer session in the House Energy and Natural Resources committee today, the entire Republican half of the committee walked out. The committee chair, Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, called it an act of gamesmanship.

Egolf arranged two presentations on the impact of rules as well as incentives on the production of oil and gas in New Mexico. Two powerpoint presentations were given, which took about an hour, then a question and answer session ensued.

Rep. Don Bratton, R-Hobbs, identified himself at the beginning of the hearing as having thirty years in the oil and gas industry. As one of the presenters began to answer a question by Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, Bratton interrupted, asking what background in petroleum engineering the two presenters had."...

..."The HERN committee is evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, in a year in which many expect there to be a strong push by the oil and gas industry to lessen environmental rules and regulations on oil and gas drilling. Legislation to that effect would most likely be assigned to HERN. Four of the six [67%] Republicans on the committee identified themselves as part of the oil and gas industry, either currently, in the past, or through a spouse." More>>>>

Senate GHG bill would strike down federal, some state regs

Greenwire

Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter

"Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) will introduce a bill later today that would prohibit federal agencies from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and also limit states' ability to implement carbon dioxide laws.

The measure would prevent the federal government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions for their effects on climate change, according to a source familiar with the bill." More>>>>

Professor: NM loopholes for drillers not paying off

SANTA FE (KSFR) -

"A UNM professor says New Mexico's tax breaks and other loopholes for oil and gas are not producing the revenues that lawmakers thought they would. Prof. Kim Sovig has told the House energy committee that royalties from oil and gas revenues have declined over the past six years while at the same time the amounts that drillers can deduct from their obligations to the state have more than doubled. The testimony comes as Rep. Brian Egolf of Santa Fe holds a hearing to find out if state incentives are producing revenues and if the state's environmental rules are driving the drilling business to other states." KSFR>>>>

Powell: No more land deals in 'dead of night'

Land commissioner raises bar for office, vows transparency

Susan Montoya Bryan | The Associated Press
Posted: Sunday, January 30, 2011

"What matters to New Mexico Land Commissioner Ray Powell is sunshine.

He's quick to trade in his undecorated office for a few moments outside under the Northern New Mexico sun.

But Powell's obsession with sunshine goes beyond being warmed up by the golden rays on this winter day. He's more interested in the kind of sunshine that will bring openness and transparency to what goes on at the State Land Office. He wants to restore confidence in the agency, protect state trust lands and continue to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars each year for public schools and other beneficiaries.

"Our objective is to put as much sunshine as we possibly can on these projects and let them live or die by their merits," he told The Associated Press during an interview. "The way we inoculate ourselves from future problems is just to have sunshine on everything that we do."

The Land Office during the previous administration was embroiled in legal battles over the exchange of trust land for private land around White Peak in northeastern New Mexico, and other questions were raised about appraisals, commercial land leases and the lack of analysis on some projects.

Former Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons has defended his administration, but just this week the New Mexico Supreme Court rejected two of the White Peak land swaps that were orchestrated by Lyons. " More>>>>
1/31

Exxon Mobil’s profit climbs 53%

By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch

"NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 53% to top $9 billion, marking the oil major’s richest results since the third quarter of 2008 as it benefited from higher crude-oil prices." More>>>>

Tougher regulations to affect Barnett Shale natural gas drillers

Star-Telegram

By Aman Batheja

abatheja@star-telegram.com

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality moved this week to impose tougher regulations on natural gas drillers but opted to try them out only in the Barnett Shale area in North Texas before applying them statewide.

The state agency voted Wednesday to beef up its air emission limits on toxic chemicals associated with natural gas drilling and required producers to test their drilling sites more stringently.

It's the first major change to the agency's drilling regulations in over a decade and "light-years ahead" of the current rules, said Richard Hyde, the deputy director of permitting and registration.

Industry interests pushed for the trial period to see whether changes will be needed before the rest of the state falls under the rules.

"Those are tremendous changes and huge steps forward for both TCEQ and the industry," Celina Romero of the Texas Pipeline Association told commissioners." More>>>>

Bill would shake up energy, natural-resource boards

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, January 28, 2011 -

"A bill sponsored by Rep. Paul Bandy, R-Aztec, would ax the State Game Commission and merge the Department of Game and Fish with the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

House Bill 80 also would "sunset all boards and commissions addressing energy and natural resources issues."'...

..."Among other changes, the bill would:

• Terminate the Oil Conservation Commission, the governor-appointed board that approved a controversial oil-waste pit-rule that Gov. Susana Martinez has targeted as "bad for business."
• Terminate the Youth Conservation Corps Commission by 2017.
• Remove per diem for the 11-member state parks advisory board and terminate it in 2017.
• Remove per diem for the seven-member off-highway vehicle advisory board and terminate it in 2013.
• Terminate the Mining Safety Board in 2017.
• Leave in place a seven-member mining commission but change requirements for who is appointed by the governor. It would require no member to have a direct or indirect financial connection to any coal mining operation." More>>>>

Moonstruck: Climate science denier Harrison Schmitt, appointed to head NM[EMNRD], believes enviros and scientists like Holdren are communists

Climate Progress
January 27, 2011

“New Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered the state records administrator yesterday to publish a rule establishing a statewide cap on emissions,” as E&E News (subs. req’d) reported today. That should be good news in a state that faces a grim future — brutal heat waves, massive wildfires, permanent Dust Bowls — in a world of unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions (see “U.S. southwest could see a 60-year drought like that of 12th century — only hotter — this century” and below). Indeed, the state’s own Sandia National Laboratory analyzed projected rainfall patterns from climate change and found “over the next 40 years, New Mexico’s economic contribution to the U.S. economy could drop by $26 billion.”

But newly elected NM Gov. Susana Martinez (R) is dead set against the emissions cap. Worse, as noted earlier this month, she picked climate denier Harrison Schmitt to run “the state’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, which oversees all environmental matters” in the state. Schmitt believes mainstream climate science is a conspiracy “to increase government control.”

Now it turns out former astronaut Schmitt is even more of a climate crackpot than first thought. As ThinkProgress reports (with a jaw-dropping audio):

Schmitt, a retired astronaut and former U.S. Senator, has said he believes the leaders of the environmental movement are communists, and that when these communist environmentalists are appointed to government positions, citizens need to “wake up” and “take control of their government again.” The New Mexico Independent has flagged this interview Schmitt gave to crank radio host Alex Jones in 2009:

SCHMITT: Number one we’ve been concerned with the misuse of science, but I think more fundamentally, this misuse of science has lead to politicians and ideologues to try to gain control of the American economy, and indeed the global economy, by scaring people…. I think that there are individuals, [Obama science czar John] Holdren apparently among them, a very large number who have taken — shall we say captured the environmental movement and turned it into what was previously considered the communist movement. And that’s just something that people of common sense are going to continue to have to counter and wake up enough so that they can take control of their government again. [...]" More>>>>

NM Supreme Court Orders Records Administrator to Print Rules

New Mexico Environmental Law Center

"SANTA FE, N.M.— The New Mexico Supreme Court sided with environmental groups today when it granted a writ of mandamus to the New Mexico State Records Administrator, compelling her to print the adopted and final greenhouse gas cap and dairy discharge rules. The printing of the rules was halted earlier in the month by Governor Martinez’ Executive Order which suggested the rules were “pending” and therefore subject to a ninety day hold for review.

“This is a tremendous and deserved victory for the administration of justice in New Mexico,” stated Bruce Frederick, staff attorney of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), the nonprofit law firm that brought two suits against the Governor for its clients, New Energy Economy and Amigos Bravos. “The ruling ensures that our regulations will continue to be developed in a public and open process, and be protected from revision through secret, backroom deals.”'

Read entire article >

Posted by Juana Colon on 01/26/2011 • Permalink

~~~~~

KSFR

"State high court hears arguments over Martinez vs. enviro rules

(2011-01-26)

SANTA FE (KSFR) -

Gov. Martinez is getting her her first court challenge today, and KSFR's Marion Cox reports that the courtroom is filled to overcapacity. The state Supreme Court is hearing a lawsuit seeking to reverse the governor's order to put aside recently enacted environmental rules. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed the suit, asking the high court to order Martinez to reinstate two environmental rules Martinez put on hold minutes after she took office. One rule would put a three-percent-a-year cap on greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial polluters. The other would institute cap-and-trade requirements on industry as a way of controlling emissions.

Listen to Marion Cox's first report. She says the justices asked a few questions of the environmental lawyers but questioning of Martinez' lawyers has been "withering."

Hearing still underway at 10 a.m." Link to newscast>>>>

Court Tosses Land Trade

January 25, 2011

Copyright © 2011 Albuquerque Journal
By 2011 Phil Parker And Karen Peterson
Journal Staff Writers

"A divided New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the White Peak land swaps negotiated by former State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons and appeared to bar any future trades of private tracts for state trust land.

The high court said it wasn't ruling on whether the four-part exchange of land parcels in the White Peak area north of Ocate was a good deal or a bad one.

The opinion by Justice Richard C. Bosson says the "Land commissioner makes a cogent argument supporting his conclusion that certain private land exchanges would improve the management and value of state trust lands."

But it says that under New Mexico's 100-year-old Enabling Act, the state land commissioner can only dispose of trust land "by a true public auction."

"Without the benefit of an auction's objective means of sale ... there is no protection against favoritism," the opinion says.

Bosson, joined by Justices Petra Jimenez Maes and Patricio M. Serna stressed that the court wasn't undoing any past Land Office exchanges.

Justices Edward Chavez and Charles Daniels dissented. Chavez noted that the land commissioner's "undivided loyalty is to the designated beneficiaries and not the state as a whole."

By quibbling over the specifics of the auction process instead of questioning the commissioner's overall authority to exchange land, Chavez wrote, "the attorney general seeks to protect the best interests of the bidders (in the White Peak case), not the best interests of the trust beneficiaries." It was Attorney General Gary King who challenged the trades before the Supreme Court.

In the White Peak deal, Lyons maintained the trades he negotiated with ranchers would help clear up complicated boundaries between state and private land and prevent trespassing, poaching and vandalism. Opponents said Lyons was giving up some of the state's best public elk hunting territory.

The Supreme Court majority noted that the Enabling Act says state trust lands "shall not be sold or leased, in whole or in part, except to the highest and best bidder at a public auction."

Because the White Peak deals had to be worked out ahead of time, the opinion says, the exchanges were made using negotiating and bargaining "rather than seeking the highest financial gain through objective means."' More>>>>

Industry wary of S.F. rep from oil family

Steve Terrell | The New Mexican
Posted: Monday, January 24, 2011 - 1

"State Rep. Brian Egolf's great-grandfather was the founder of the American Petroleum Association of America. Egolf's father, until a few years ago, was an oilman, who drilled in Oklahoma and Texas.

But oil-industry representatives aren't exactly reacting with joy at the news that a "member of the family" is heading to the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

In fact, because of the younger Egolf's public positions on environment and conservation issues, some in the energy industry worry that Gov. Susana Martinez's agenda of rolling back environmental regulations just got harder.

Speaking at a meeting of Leadership Santa Fe, a program sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Egolf said Monday that because of an even split on his committee among Democrats and Republicans, few bills that are controversial will gain passage." More>>>>
"

Political shift puts environmental activists on the defense

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican
Posted: Saturday, January 22, 2011

"Environmentalists say they're fighting to hold on to gains made in recent years, while oil, gas and utility representatives, with support from newly elected Gov. Susana Martinez, are trying to roll back regulations they say hurt New Mexico businesses. "...

[However,]

...."Finding a little common ground

Industry and environmental advocates agree on one thing: They want an independent office for all hearing examiners in regulatory cases.

Currently, each state agency has its own in-house hearing examiners or contracts for them.

"I think if a bill like that was introduced to establish an independent office of hearing examiners, our inclination will be to support it," said Douglas Meiklejohn, head of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which is taking Martinez to court over her decision to stop publication of the greenhouse-gas emission rules." More>>>>

Governor targets film production tax credit, but 'giveaways' abound for oil and gas industry

Trip Jennings | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, January 21, 2011 -

"One New Mexico industry received more than $130 million in tax breaks last year.

Supporters say the breaks are necessary to do business.

Critics call them "giveaways."

The state's oil-and-gas industry benefited from a host of tax exemptions, deductions, credits and rate differentials strewn through the tax code. And that has film-industry advocates wondering why Gov. Susana Martinez has singled them out."...

..."Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, and new chairman of the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, thinks it's about time to look through some of the breaks the oil and gas industry gets for possible revenue.

"I will have a bill introduced next week where I am going to look at the some of the tax giveaways that go to oil, gas and coal," Egolf said."...

..."Whose ox is getting gored? ...

...the oil and gas industry contributed $807,000 of the $6.9 million in campaign contributions Martinez collected when she ran for governor last year, institute data show. Among industries, oil and gas was her biggest contributor.

Martinez's office said Friday the contributions have no bearing on her decision to not target tax exemptions, deductions and credits for industries beyond film production. " More>>>>