ESG & Industry Updates

Ed Burke

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Social Media for Business, Should You Embrace it Even If You Hate It?

Posted by Ed Burke on Oct 21, 2014 11:05:00 AM

Spoiler Alert: The answer is YES!

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Topics: Customer Service, social media, social media for business, marketing, value added services

Pipeline Stubbornness - Canada's "Work Around" & US Environmental Harm

Posted by Ed Burke on Oct 17, 2014 12:00:00 PM

 

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Topics: Keystone XL, TransCanada, shale, railcar regulations, irving oil, environment

EIA Projects Lower Bills for Home Heating Oil and Propane Customers

Posted by Ed Burke on Oct 8, 2014 2:45:47 PM

The EIA is projecting lower heating bills for consumers this winter - especially if you use propane or oilheat versus Natural Gas. 

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Topics: natural gas, EIA, national grid, propane, heating oil

Breaking: Rate Hikes Approved. Hold On to Your Wallets - or Hold Your Nose for Pipeline Approvals

Posted by Ed Burke on Sep 26, 2014 4:58:33 PM

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Topics: natural gas, Utility Rates, algonquin pipeline, tennessee pipeline, national grid, electricity rates

US Carbon Emissions Still on the Decline - Guess Why?

Posted by Ed Burke on Jul 11, 2014 5:03:24 PM

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Topics: Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion, Fracking, Climate Change, Carbon Emissions, Emissions

By The Numbers - How Would the Proposed "Oil Barrel Tax" Impact You?

Posted by Ed Burke on Jun 27, 2014 12:42:08 PM

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Topics: Tax Increases, Gas Tax, Highway Trust Fund, Oil Barrel Tax

Progress on Keystone XL? ....Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Posted by Ed Burke on Jun 25, 2014 2:49:09 PM

Oil pipline in the snow

 

Tuesday the House passed bipartisan legislation to speed up the approval process for cross-border energy projects (ie Keystone XL), despite a promised veto from President Obama.  The bill is known as the “North American Energy Infrastructure Act”, featuring 12 Republican and 8 Democratic co-sponsors. If it passed the Senate, it would establish by law that projects be granted or denied approval within 120 days of the Environmental Impact Study, and more significantly, it would remove the need for Presidential Approval.

Technically the bill doesn’t apply to Keystone XL, because the applications and environmental impact studies are already completed for that proposed project. However, that’s obviously the most glaring example of the need to speed up the process, and probably the impetus for the bill’s submission in the first place. In theory, TransCanada could resubmit their application and be subject to the speedier process. (A motion to prevent TransCanada from resubmitting should the bill pass was handily shut down by a wide margin.) 

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Topics: Energy Independence, Keystone XL, Energy Infrastructure, Congress, TransCanada, Environmental Impact Study

Methane & Consumers Giving Nat Gas Headaches

Posted by Ed Burke on May 20, 2014 12:32:56 PM

 We talked before about the White House's proposed new regulations on Methane emissions, which came on the heels of the Administration supporting increased natural gas exports in response to the Russia/Ukraine debacle. Well the EPA whitepapers have come out now outlining proposed changes on each of the industries involved - you can check those out here: EPA Methane Whitepapers 

The Admin proposed changes cite the Agricultural sector as the largest methane producer, followed by Nat Gas. The difference however, is changes proposed for Agriculture are "voluntary" versus regulatory changes for the Nat Gas sector. As usual, environmental groups cheered and said too little too late, while the industry said given it's in their financial best interest to control leakage (their main source of environmental methane), new regulations are an uneccessary burden. 

As we said before, it's hard not to infer from the timing that increasing regulations on methane is at least in part due to environmental and consumer backlash on exports over environmental and supply/pricing concerns. However, given that exporting should increase revenue greatly for the industry it's a pretty savvy time to introduce regulations that may be costly. 

On the consumer side, news has been breaking recently on the number of gas leaks in communities. In the wake of several explosions,  there has been some digging into just how big a problem neighborhood leaks may be, and the news is not good. Some estimates (including a Boston University Study) peg the number of neighborhood leaks in the City of Boston alone at over 3400, and over 20,000 statewide. (You can read the Boston Globe article on the BU Study here: "Boston Riddled with Mostly Small Natural Gas Leaks" )

The issue with these leaks goes beyond the obvious safety and environmental concerns as well. Gas that escapes en route to the consumer is paid for by the consumer. Its estimated that Massachusetts ratepayers are paying an average of $39 million dollars a year for leaked gas ($640 million-1.5 Billion from 2000-2011 according to a study by Senator Ed Markey's Office)

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Topics: natural gas, EPA, methane, gas leaks

How is Switching to Nat Gas Hurting the Environment? - It's NOT What You Think

Posted by Ed Burke on Apr 17, 2014 9:30:00 AM

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Topics: natural gas, Fracking, methane

Breaking : White House Announces Methane Regulations on Fracking

Posted by Ed Burke on Mar 28, 2014 5:26:00 PM

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