Natural Gas

Utility regulators have approved $350 million in rebates to encourage Californians to install water-heating systems powered by solar energy. The state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday established the California Solar Initiative Thermal Program, which will be funded using $250 million to replace natural-gas-powered water heaters, with $25 million set aside for low-income customers. An additional $100.8 million will be used to swap out water heaters powered by electricity. The rebates could reduce the cost of a solar water heater by 15% to 25%, industry experts said.

Chevron Corp. said first-quarter profit rose 4.2% as rising oil prices offset falling natural gas prices. Net income for the first three months of the year increased to $6.47 billion, or $3.27 a share, from $6.21 billion, or $3.09,a year earlier, the San Ramon, Calif., company reported Friday. Revenue for the world's third-largest publicly traded oil company rose to $60.71 billion, compared with $60.34 billion in the first quarter last year. The company's financial performance was hurt by a sharp year-to-year decline in natural gas prices, but that drop was more than offset by sharply higher oil prices.

Regarding "Natural Gas From Overseas Sources Is Raising Concerns," Sept. 21: The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to approve my order establishing natural-gas quality standards for investor-owned utilities, including Southern California Gas Co. With liquefied natural gas expected to enter our state within the next two years, it is crucial that we act now to put in place more restrictive natural gas quality specifications to...

JERUSALEM - Amid the collapse of a multibillion-dollar natural gas agreement between Egypt and Israel that had been in place since 2005, officials from both countries stressed Monday that the dispute was a commercial one and did not reflect political tensions. But observers viewed the contract spat as the latest sign of souring relations between the two countries and said it could threaten the long-term viability of their historic 1979 Camp David peace accord. Tensions between the two countries have been rising since the ouster last year of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who maintained close ties with Israel despite the relationship's unpopularity with the Egyptian public.

A music video about "fracking"? Last week, Time magazine named a funny video about the natural-gas extraction process called fracking the No. 2 most creative video of 2011. It may be fun to say, but fracking is hard on the environment and local water safety, and that's the message behind this video, which has now gone viral and has over 200,000 views on YouTube. “It's a word you hear but you don't exactly know what it means or what it all entails. So I think it helps get people interested in the topic, and hopefully, if they watch the video, they'll go read an article about it or find out more information about what it is and what the effects are,” says Lisa Rucker, an editor in Los Angeles for  production company Pictures in a Row. She called from a set in Kentucky where she was helping to shoot a commercial.

Government scientists believe Alaska's North Slope has huge deposits of frozen natural gas that current technology could extract, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The report estimates that more than 85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the form of gas hydrates -- methane gas locked in water as an ice-like solid -- eventually may be recoverable, but cautioned that further research was needed.

An explosion apparently caused by natural gas ripped a 40-foot section from a motel Sunday, injuring 31 people. The blast occurred four minutes after someone phoned Montana-Dakota Utilities and reported a strong smell of natural gas, said Dick Blee, the acting Billings fire chief. Firefighters controlled the blaze within three hours. "We have witnessed a miracle," Fire Department Capt. Marvin Jochems said after searchers accounted for all 60 people registered at the three-story Super 8 Motel.

The prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine announced a deal early today to settle the gas dispute that has reduced supplies of Russian gas to Europe for nearly two weeks. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Ukraine will pay 20% less than the European price for the gas this year. It is still a substantial increase for Ukraine. Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said natural gas supplies would resume once the two countries' gas companies sign a contract. It was not clear how soon this would happen.

A divided Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a request from Southern California Gas Co. to charge customers $1.05 billion to install radio-controlled smart meters on 6 million homes from Fresno to the Mexican border -- overriding criticism that the technology simply isn't needed. On a 3-2 vote, the regulatory panel backed a proposal by Commissioner Dian Grueneich to provide 20.5 million SoCalGas users with more real-time information about how much natural gas they are using to run furnaces, water heaters and stoves.

Carl Harberger's 6,000-square-foot Chatsworth house is equipped with six refrigerators, five TVs, a smattering of computers and a pool, among other things — enough to draw the wagging finger of the eco-minded if it were not for what Harberger has on his roof. By the end of the month, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power is expected to flip the switch on the home's 24-kilowatt installation of thin-film solar panels, bringing to life what is believed to be the largest residential installation of its kind in the country.

AVELLA, Pa. - About two years ago, Dr. Amy Pare began treating members of the Moten family and their neighbors from a working-class neighborhood less than half a mile from a natural gas well here. A plastic surgeon whose specialty includes skin cancer, Pare removed and biopsied quarter-size skin lesions from Jeannie Moten, 53, and her niece, only to find that the sores recurred. "The good news is that it wasn't cancer, and the bad news is that we have no idea what it is," Pare said.

WASHINGTON - TheU.S. Environmental Protection Agencyissued regulations that for the first time will curtail air pollution from natural gas wells that use a controversial production technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The regulations will limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, which react with sunlight to create smog. The rules also will curb carcinogens and methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change. The rules are expected to affect about 11,000 new wells annually that undergo fracking and an additional 1,200 that are re-fracked to boost production.

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued its first-ever regulations to curtail air pollution from natural gas wells that use a controversial production technique known as hydraulic fracturing, but gave the industry a three-year transition period to install technology to capture some of the worst pollutants. The new regulations would limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which react with sunlight to create smog. They would also limit emissions of carcinogens and methane, the main component to natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change.  The rules are expected to affect the approximately 11,000 new wells annually that undergo hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and another 1,200 or so that are re-fracked to boost production.

WASHINGTON - Facing heat for high gasoline prices, President Obama tried to shift the focus to Congress, Republicans and energy traders, calling for legislation that he said would "put more cops on the beat" to crack down on potential manipulation of the oil market. Obama called on Congress to provide more money for regulators and increase penalties for market manipulators. The president, flanked by Treasury SecretaryTimothy F. Geithnerand Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., suggested that traders and speculators are affecting the price of oil and digging into Americans' pocketbooks.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama signed an executive order Friday creating an interagency task force to coordinate oversight of the country's booming natural gas development, a step that eased industry concerns about the relatively high number of federal agencies involved in the process. The task force will be chaired by White House energy adviser Heather Zichal and have "deputy-level representatives” from the departments of Defense, Energy, Interior and Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Diesel prices are at their highest level in nearly four years, topping $4 a gallon, but trucking company executive Fred Johring is taking it in stride. Johring's Golden State Express has bought low-emission, fuel-efficient diesel and natural gas rigs to comply with a clean-truck mandate at Southern California's twin ports — with the fortunate side effect of easing the pain of high-priced diesel. "We went from having one of the oldest local fleets to one of the newest," said Johring, whose Rancho Dominguez company sends trucks mainly on short-haul trips to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Air pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing, a controversial oil and gas drilling method, may contribute to “acute and chronic health problems for those living near natural gas drilling sites,” according to a new study from the  Colorado School of Public Health . The study , based on three years of monitoring at Colorado sites, found a number of “potentially toxic petroleum hydrocarbons in the air near the wells including benzene,...

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued its first-ever regulations to curtail air pollution from natural gas wells that use a controversial production technique known as hydraulic fracturing, but gave the industry a three-year transition period to install technology to capture some of the worst pollutants. The new regulations would limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which react with sunlight to create smog. They would also limit emissions of carcinogens and methane, the main component to natural gas and a potent contributor to climate change.  The rules are expected to affect the approximately 11,000 new wells annually that undergo hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and another 1,200 or so that are re-fracked to boost production.

Mitt Romney took aim at the Obama administration's energy policies in a speech at a natural gas well Friday, speaking on a topic beloved to the voters of Louisiana, which holds its primary Saturday. “It was a huge mistake for him to try to hold off the energy production in this country by saying  no to drilling in the gulf and slowing down drilling up in the Bakken region in North Dakota,” Romney said of Obama. “He's made it harder to get energy in America and so he shouldn't be taking credit for that.” Romney spoke to a crowd of mine workers in hard hats and jumpsuits, and their families, at QEP  Resources, which is drilling to reach natural gas in the Haynesville Shale, a productive area of gas mining in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.