Unable to deliver crude to refineries because of a broken pipeline on the Santa Barbara coast, 
Exxon Mobil Corp. temporarily shut down production on three offshore oil platforms.
Company spokesman Richard Keil said the halt to production was the only option after Santa Barbara County rejected the company’s emergency application to allow it to truck its crude oil.
U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl issued a temporary halt on new federal rules on hydraulic 
fracturing on public lands. The stay, which expires July 22, had been requested by energy industry groups and several states.
The rules, which had been set to take effect on June 24, would require companies to disclose information on chemicals used in fracking. They would also impose new rules to prevent leaks from oil and gas wells.
Still pending before Judge Skavdahl is a request for a preliminary injunction blocking the rules. A hearing on that request is not expected until mid-August, according to the IPAA.
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has posted feedback letters submitted by members of the public following workshops held in April on proposed regulation of oil and natural gas methane. The feedback letters are available online.
Mark Nechodom, the director of the California Department of Conservation, which oversees the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), resigned Thursday in a one-paragraph letter to Resource Secretary John Laird which did not give a reason for his departure.
During his tenure, DOGGR has been criticized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for allowing oil producers to drill of oilfield wastewater disposal wells into federally protected aquifers.
California’s State Senate approved SB778, which would ban new offshore oil drilling in an area of the Santa Barbara Channel known as Tranquillon Ridge. The measure now goes to the Assembly.
The legislation, labeled the Coastal Protection Act, was introduced by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Sen. Mike McGuire (D-San Rafael) prior to the May 19 oil pipeline leak from that released 101,000 gallons of crude at Refugio State Beach, including 21,000 gallons that flowed into the sea.
Dennis Luna, Managing Partner of Luna & Glushon and Editor-in-Chief of the California Oil &
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Gas Report, was the opening speaker at a Cap-and-Trade Forum held June 3.
The topic of the forum, presented by the BizFed Institute and held at Woodbury University in Burbank, was: “Is Cap-and-Trade Working for California?”
Mr. Luna’s presentation explained what cap-and-trade is, identified the “hot button” issues that make cap-and-trade so controversial; and why cap-and-trade has a multi-billion-dollar impact on the state’s economy.
