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Cove Point set to make 1st LNG shipment; US coal sector's customers dwindling

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Cove Point set to make 1st LNG shipment; US coal sector's customers dwindling

Top News

White House draft report finds benefits of EPA regulations outweigh costs

A draft report released recently by the White House's Office of Management and Budget concluded that the benefits associated with regulations the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued between 2001 and 2015 vastly outweigh the associated costs.

Cove Point set to make 1st LNG shipment, with tanker waiting in Chesapeake

Dominion Energy Inc.'s Cove Point LNG terminal in Maryland is days away from exporting its first gas cargo, according to a source familiar with the matter.

US coal sector's customers dwindling, but some hoping new plants on horizon

U.S. coal supporters are split on how best to improve the outlook of a fuel with a shrinking domestic customer base.

Power

* Increased transparency around transmission projects and fixes to wholesale electricity market rules are some of the policy goals the American Public Power Association is promoting during its 2018 legislative rally.

* Xcel Energy Inc. reached agreements with concerned parties in Texas and New Mexico over its proposed $1.6 billion plan to build two wind farms along the border of the two states, The Associated Press reported.

* The Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ordered to transfer the stalled case over the Grain Belt Express transmission line to the state Supreme Court, the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch reported.

* A contract shows that NextEra Energy Inc. would lose access to a nuclear plant worker background check system when it withdrew from the Nuclear Energy Institute, undermining its claims that the NEI tried to extort money from the company, the lobbying group said in a motion Feb. 26 seeking dismissal of a federal court suit.

* U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to hold talks with Saudi Arabian senior officials over a nuclear cooperation agreement in London this week, The Washington Post reported.

* Eversource Energy will ask the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee today to reconsider its rejection of the proposed $1.6 billion Northern Pass transmission project, according to The Associated Press.

* The U.S. federal government has started a "responsible drawdown" of contractors working to restore electricity in Puerto Rico, despite having many residents still without power, according to The New York Times.

* The Milwaukee Common Council voted to intervene in a proposed $140 million transmission line that would connect Foxconn Technology Group's proposed manufacturing complex in Racine County, Wis., to the grid, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

* Hydro Quebec has been getting a lot of applications from cryptocurrency miners for a total supply of 9,000 MW of electricity, Bloomberg News reported.

* CPS Energy bought a shuttered amusement park to house its operations center and to consolidate workers across three sites, according to the San Antonio (Texas) Business Journal.

* The city of Elgin, Ill., is considering a demand response proposal to switch the city's main water plant to generator power at Commonwealth Edison Co.'s request during grid instability, the Elgin Courier News reported.

Natural gas/oil

* The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP's Westlake natural gas pipeline expansion would not have serious environmental impacts.

* An analysis conducted by Levitan & Associates Inc. disproved claims by the Environmental Defense Fund that Eversource Energy manipulated the New England natural market, the company said Feb. 27.

* The International Energy Agency expects the U.S. to become the biggest oil producer by 2019, overtaking Russia, Reuters reported. "U.S. shale growth is very strong, the pace is very strong ... The United States will become the No.1 oil producer sometime very soon," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told the news outlet.

* Outgoing Shell Midstream Partners LP CEO John Hollowell reassured investors on Feb. 27 that management is keeping close tabs on required payouts from the energy pipeline master limited partnership to its general partner and those contributions' impact on capital costs.

* The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality permit for the Atlantic Coast pipeline project's Northampton compressor station.

* Exxon Mobil Corp. is divesting its entire 19% stake in the Terra Nova oil project, which is about 217 miles off Newfoundland and Labrador, according to Reuters.

* Vancouver Energy has decided not to appeal the Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's rejection of its proposed oil-train terminal along Columbia River, The Seattle Times reported.

* The Portland Business Alliance has come out in support of the controversial Jordan Cove LNG terminal and the Pacific Connector gas pipeline, the Portland (Ore.) Business Journal reported.

* Kentucky lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would increase the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon to help fund road repairs, The Associated Press reported.

* U.S. shale producers are set to meet with the head of OPEC at a dinner in Houston in the week of March 5, according to Bloomberg News.

* SandRidge Energy Inc. will lay off 80 workers in Oklahoma City, as part of its restructuring, KOCO 5 News reported.

Coal

* The coal companies controlled by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family have failed to pay $2.9 million in property taxes in Kentucky, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader reported.

* S&P Global Market Intelligence talked to Sergei Grigoriev, Siberian Coal Energy Co. OJSC's public relations and communications director, who believes that analysis on coal tends to focus on the resource being slowly phased out, ignoring the fact that when used sustainably, coal remains a reliable source of cheap energy, especially in emerging economies.

* Israel plans to stop the use of coal, gasoline and diesel by 2030, UPI reported, citing Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.

* Edenville Energy Plc signed a one-year contract to supply 2,000 tonnes of coal per month to an East African customer from its Rukwa coal project in Tanzania.

Commodities

* After a 0.3-cent loss in its first day in the lead slot Tuesday to settle at $2.683/MMBtu, NYMEX April natural gas futures moved on either side of the ledger overnight ahead of the Wednesday, Feb. 28, open, as lingering cold in weather outlooks suggest some late-season heating demand, while seasonal changes drive uncertainty in the market.

* Next-day power prices around the United States could move in a mixed pattern Wednesday, Feb. 28, in line with jumbled demand projections for Thursday.

* Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon dioxide allowance prices at the over-the-counter market are moving higher in front of the program's next quarterly auction.

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New from RRA

* On Feb. 16, Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. implemented a $36 million interim rate increase premised upon a 9.5% ROE and a 6.91% return on an average rate base valued at $1.980 billion for a calendar-2017 test year.

Quoted

"Across the federal government, the rules with the highest estimated benefits as well as the highest estimated costs come from the Environmental Protection Agency," said a report by the federal Office of Management and Budget that found that the benefits associated with regulations the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued between 2001 and 2015 vastly outweigh the associated costs.

The day ahead

* The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources' subcommittee on water and power will hold a legislative hearing at 10 a.m. ET.

* Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. equity markets. To view more SNL equity market indexes, click here. To view more SNL Energy commodities prices, click here.

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