Rather than pre-judge how the Commission would implement legislation working its way through the House of Representatives directing FERC to boost natural gas price transparency, FERC Chairman Pat Wood on Wednesday said his inclination would be to instead hold an open workshop to get feedback on this and several other energy-related issues should the bill be signed into law.

The draft energy bill reported out by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week would authorize FERC to issues rules authorizing or establishing an electronic information system “to provide the Commission and the public with timely access to such information as is necessary or appropriate to facilitate price transparency and participation in natural gas markets.” The overall energy bill is expected to reach the floor of the House this week for debate.

At a press briefing following the Commission’s regular agenda meeting on Wednesday, Wood was asked how he thinks FERC would go about implementing this provision of the energy bill should it become law.

“We certainly supported both electric and gas transparency language and we’re pleased to see that in the House bill,” Wood said. The chairman believes that there will be a “number of rulemakings that fall out of that legislation” if it’s enacted.

“I think, based on my experience in my prior job, rather than go in with our mind made up about how we do that, I would expect that we would convene — shortly after the President signs that bill — just kind of an open workshop” dealing separately with hydro, electric and gas-related issues “and talk with interested parties about what they think we ought to do.”

Wood noted that there are a “number of ways to fulfill almost all of those Congressional mandates” that are included in the legislation. “I think I’d like, really, to hear from the parties first. That worked real well back in Texas when we were trying to implement” various rulemakings, he noted. Prior to joining FERC as a commissioner and now chairman, Wood served as chairman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission.

FERC has scheduled a technical conference for April 24 to discuss issues related to the adequacy of natural gas price information. Issues expected to be addressed at the conference include how data is collected, how publicly available quotes are checked for authenticity and reliability, adequacy of coverage, what effort is made to determine whether the information received and published is complete or representative of its type of transaction and what models best serve price discovery needs for natural gas markets.

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