** A U.S. District Court Judge puts ConocoPhillips’s mining and gravel construction at a National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska project on hold for two weeks reports the Anchorage Daily News. ** The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote to advance Michael Regan’s nomination to be EPA administrator on Tuesday. ** The company building a disputed Russian-German underwater gas pipeline that’s been the …
February 2021 archive
January drilling permits in Texas less than half from a year ago
The number of drilling permits issued by the Railroad Commission of Texas in the month of January totaled 512, less than half of the 1,156 permits issued in January 2020. The Commission released figures showing the January 2021 total includes 446 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, two to re-enter plugged well …
Rep. Lucas says it’s time to include research funding in COVID-19 relief efforts
Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas is pushing legislation to invest billions more to help in the recovery of the nation’s research abilities, research that he says is ignored by Democrats in their COVID-19 relief bills. The Republican Representative, a ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee supported the Research Investment to Secure the …
Virginia-based Estes Express expands OKC operations
Considered the largest, privately-owned freight carrier in North America, Estes Express acquired a a former trucking terminal in Oklahoma City in a nearly $15 million deal. The Virginia-based trucking line with 260 terminals across the country bought the Waggoners Trucking terminal at 1501 SE 15 in Oklahoma City. Estes is expanding nationwide and anticipates …
Icy weather forced postponement of OK Transportation Commission meeting
Icy and bitterly cold weather early Monday resulted in crashes throughout Oklahoma City and forced the cancellation of events and postponement of others. Included in the list of groups forced to delay their meetings was the Oklahoma Transportation Commission. It was scheduled to meet Monday morning but leaders quickly postponed the monthly meeting …
Opposition grows against New Mexico nuclear waste storage facility
Questions are being raised about the developer of an underground nuclear waste storage facility in the southern part of New Mexico. Some members of the state’s congressional delegation have joined environmentalists and other opponents in contending the operation was rushed through the approval process during the pandemic reported Searchlight New Mexico. Click here for …
Kansas regulators taking a long hard look at Evergy’s plan for upgrades
Regulators in Kansas are still reviewing and conducting a close study of Evergy’s proposed clean energy plan which includes $5.6 billion in upgrades of its transmission and distribution. The Topeka Capital Journal reports the Kansas Corporation Commission has gone into a deep study of the impact of the company’s Sustainability Transformation Plan.” Every, the …
SandRidge closes on sale of Colorado assets
Nearly two months after it announced the sale of its NorthPark Basin assets in Colorado, SandRidge Energy said the deal was finalized this week. The company divested its holdings in a $47 million cash deal that was effective Oct. 1, 2020. The buyer was not disclosed at the time of the original announcement and …
Arkansas city’s solar project to affect OGE operation
An OGE customer in Arkansas has just finished the first part of a project to get its electricity from the power of the sun rather than the Oklahoma-based utility. City leaders in Alma held a “Flip the Switch” event on Friday for a new solar array to power the city’s wastewater treatment facility and …
Dems in Texas want to create tax on flared natural gas
Environmental groups and Democrats in the Texas legislature are pushing a bill to create a tax on gas that is vented or flared during production. The bill by Austin Democratic Rep. Vikki Goodwin would put a 25% levy on the produced gas. “—for oil producers, they see it as a waste product. Rather than …