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.
Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against DOGGR, asking the court to declare that new interim state rules on wastewater injection wells are illegal.
The suit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court by San Francisco-based Earthjustice, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity. It contends the interim rules, which allow continued wastewater injection by oil and gas companies until February of 2017, is “in violation of state and federal law.”
Dennis Luna, Editor-in-Chief of the California Oil & Gas Report and Managing Partner of Luna & 
Glushon, will moderate an Energy Forum to be held May 8th by the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The focus of the forum, titled “Powering The Economy,” will be how current state, national and international events are impacting energy supply and costs in California.
Panelists will include John Felmy, Chief Economist of the American Petroleum Institute; Diane Wiggins, Principal Manager, Strategic Business Solutions, Southern California Edisonl, and Tiffany K. Roberts, Director of Fuels and Climate Policy, Western States Petroleum Association.
The forum will be held at the Hotel Maya, in Long Beach.
California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC), formerly part of Occidental Petroleum, reported a net loss of $97 million or 25 cents per share for the first quarter of 2015, compared to a profit of $223 million or 57 cents per share for the first quarter of 2014.
CRC also reported record quarterly total production of 166,000 BOE per day and record crude oil production of 108,000 barrels per day.
