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Subject: energy Tue, Mar 31 1992
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 05:49:46 EST
Message-ID: <ns.energy.1992Mar31.054946@AmeriCast.com>

03-31 0000
DECISIONLINE: Energy
USA TODAY Update
March 31, 1992
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network
    
PRICES UP SLIGHTLY:
   Crude oil prices rose slightly Monday in hesitant trading 
focused on whether Iraq would be permitted to sell oil and whether 
sanctions would be imposed on Libya. Light sweet crude oil for May 
delivery settled at $19.25 per barrel, up 9 cents, on the 
Mercantile Exchange. Lifting the Iraqi sanctions would drag down 
prices; removing Libya's oil would have the opposite effect.
    
REFINED PRODUCTS MIXED:
   Refined petroleum products were mixed Monday at the Mercantile 
Exchange. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in April settled at 58.45 
cents a gallon, down .03 cent. Home heating oil for delivery in 
April settled at 53.06 cents a gallon, up .85 cent. Elsewhere, 
natural gas prices were mixed, with contracts for delivery in May 
settling at $1.322 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 0.6 cent.
    
HANFORD CLEANUP TO BE COSTLY:
   Critics are howling that the government is fighting one kind of 
disaster at the Hanford Nuclear Site - the potential hazards of 
radioactive waste - by creating another: The most protracted and 
costliest cleanup in history. Indeed, it's going to cost $1.1 
million to tear down a garage-sized metal shed - its most 
dangerous content was cleaning fluid - at the Richland, Wash., 
site.
(For more, see special Hanford package below.)
    
MMM CONSORTIUM AWARDED STUDY:
   Marathon Oil Co., McDermott International Inc. and Mitsui & Co. 
Ltd. (MMM Consortium) Monday signed an agreement with Russia to 
perform a feasibility study for the development of the 
Piltun-Astohskoye and Lunskoye oil and gas fields off the Sakhalin 
Island. P:O Sakhalinmorneftegas, the Russian enterprise engaged in 
oil and gas production in the northern part of Sakhalin, will 
participate.
    
GOV'T TO DECIDE ON DEVELOPMENT:
   The definitive agreement signed by the MMM Consortium and 
Russia calls for the parties to conduct a comprehensive study of 
the technical, commercial, financial and legal aspects of 
developing the two offshore fields, and to submit their findings 
by the end of the year. Appropriate government bodies will review 
the study and make a final decision on actual development.
    
RATE HIKE REQUESTED:
   Yankee Gas Services Co. Monday asked for a rate increase that 
would add about $60 to $100 annually to the natural gas bills of 
Connecticut ratepayers by 1993. The utility says it needs the 7.7% 
rate-hike - an added $19.3 million per year - to maintain 
services. No decision is likely on the request until October.
    
LNG-POWERED BOAT FOR SALE:
   Merv I, the University of Alabama's innovative shrimp boat that 
runs on liquid natural gas rather than diesel, is for sale at 
$130,000. The univerity said that, while the 18-month experiment 
showed LNG is much cheaper than diesel, burns cleaner, and is cold 
enough to keep shrimp frozen, the Gulf of Mexico shrimp market has 
fizzled.
    
DAM REPLACEMENT TO BE UP IN MAY:
   Construction on a $1.85 million rockfill dam across Middle Fork 
of the Boise River - to replace Kirby Dam, which collapsed last 
May - should end in May, a Forest Service engineer said Monday. 
The Atlanta, Idaho, hydroelectric plant could be on line this 
summer.
    
PLANT WON'T BLOCK VIEW:
   A proposed 210-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Goldendale, 
Wash., isn't likely to mar views of the Columbia River Gorge, 
experts said Monday. However, the plant may only be the first of 
many such plants.
    
SPECIAL PACKAGE ON HANFORD:
    
UP TO $50B MAY BE SPENT:
   Up to $50 billion might be spent over the next 30 years to 
clean up the Hanford Nuclear Site, the USA's largest radioactive 
and toxic junkyard. "Green stuff is floating down from heaven," 
says Sam Volpentest of the Tri-City Industrial Development 
Council. Not that he's complaining. Like others living near 
Hanford, where plutonium was manufactured until the 1980s, he's 
grateful.
    
GOVERNMENT FIGHTING LAWSUITS:
   Critics are staggered by some costs. A new plant to convert 
radioactive liquids into glass logs will run $1.5 billion. 
Security costs $50 million a year. Also, the government, which has 
admitted that large doses of radiation were released between the 
mid-1940s and the 1960s, is fighting lawsuits from 1,500 people 
who grew up near Hanford. Legal bills already have topped $39 
million.
    
STUDIES BLAMED FOR SOME COSTS:
   But cleanup is what has critics really moaning. Jim Thomas of 
the Hanford Education Action League, a nonprofit watchdog group, 
says Westinghouse - which runs this facility for the government - 
has turned cleanup into a money machine. Reason: Too many studies. 
But Ralph DiSibio of Westinghouse, argues that "the cleanup cost, 
relative to the magnitude of the problem, is reasonable.
    
HEARINGS SET FOR SPRING:
   The biggest concern is 57 million gallons of radioactive liquid 
waste. It's stored in 177 tanks, and 67 are leaking. Hanford says 
the tanks are less dangerous than once feared, but critics call 
them time bombs. One tank burps hydrogen every three months, and 
no one knows how dangerous it is. One positive: This spring, 
public hearings begin on what happens to Hanford after cleanup.
(End of package.)
    
Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of 
USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution 
violates federal law.
    

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