The US Chemical Safety Board will fully investigate what caused an Aug. 6 fire at Chevron USA Inc.’s 240,000 b/d Richmond refinery in Martinez, Calif., CSB announced on Aug. 11.

Enbridge Energy Partners LP met requirements of a July 31 correction action order and was allowed to restart a crude oil pipeline in Wisconsin following repairs of a July 27 rupture, the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced.

US transportation is undergoing changes that could evolve and accelerate depending on how soon fuel and vehicle technologies advance and whether they are economically viable, the National Petroleum Council said in a recent study.

The Well Life Cycle Practices Forum (WLCPF), set up in the UK after the Macondo tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, has published four new sets of guidelines for offshore operational safety.

The first full-scale deployment of critical well control equipment in response to a potential subsea blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico was successful, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the state cannot restrict local governments from using zoning laws to regulate oil and gas drilling. Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration plans to appeal the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Sampling of private water wells in Dimock, Pa., has been completed and no significant levels of contaminants requiring further action have been found, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 3 office in Philadelphia announced.

Diluted bitumen (dilbit) from Alberta’s oil sands is so similar to heavy crude oils, which US pipelines have handled for years, that it is unlikely to pose corrosion problems, experts told a National Academies of Science panel on July 23.

The National Academies of Science will host its first data-gathering session for its Pipeline Transportation of Bitumen project July 23-24 at NAS’s headquarters.

Tougher air-quality standards for particulate matter (PM), also called soot, could trigger higher energy prices, one witness testified July 17 during a field hearing in Philadelphia on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to change the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

US President Barack Obama reiterated his support for developing natural gas resources with new technologies as long as it can be done safely and in an environmentally sound manner.