In response, on January 22nd the electricity and gas regulators proposed that power firms be barred from supplying gas in their home areas until electricity is competitive there.
SSE's announcement comes at a time when the gas industry is under investigation by regulators amid allegations that firms manipulated the wholesale gas market.
The lining of these pits and regulations stipulating what can be used for the lining has been a constant source of contention between regulators, the natural gas industry and citizens who live nearby.
The decision leaves greenhouse gas policy firmly in the hands of regulators and supports critics who said it was nonsensical for the courts to try and solve a problem that is global in scale.
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The article demonstrates the serious risks from uninformed regulatory intrusion that the U.S. natural gas industry will continue to face until government regulators stand up and defend the science supporting this well studied process.
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As well as that, a recent report found that many of Pennsylvania's energy policymakers and regulators have come from the oil and gas industry.
This at a time when permitting of offshore drilling has been slowed to a near halt, oil rigs are being displaced to foreign locations by government regulators, and vast land and ocean oil and gas reservoirs, including oil shale deposits, have been put off-limits altogether.
One reason why the growth in gas-fired stations will be more gradual this time is that American regulators are ordering power utilities to make more use of wind, solar and other renewable sources of energy.
Both are keen de-regulators and Mr Paterson is pushing a new " dash for gas", a policy the Committee on Climate Change says is incompatible with mandatory targets under the Climate Change Act to reduce emissions 80% by 2050.
"Increasing the nation's use of natural gas for electricity generation could result in adverse economic consequences, " the report said, noting that natural gas prices are fickle and that fuel switching on a large scale would require regulators to approve more pipeline and storage capacity.
In some places, the practice has been blamed for air pollution and gas leaks that have ruined well water, but the Obama administration and many state regulators say the practice is safe when done properly.
Federal regulators now touch areas of economic activity they once left alone, such as greenhouse-gas emissions.
Federal regulators on Thursday rescinded drilling permits issued a day earlier to companies for new oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting market confusion and a spike in oil prices.
In some places, the practice has been blamed for air pollution and gas leaks that have ruined well water, but President Barack Obama's administration and many state regulators say the practice is safe when done properly.
The broad outline of the rate hike was approved by state regulators in March to help bail out the state's two largest utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, who have been caught in a squeeze between escalating wholesale prices and the rates they can charge customers.
At the time, federal regulators said there was no threat to public health, though they could not identify how much gas leaked or exactly why it had happened.
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