The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied a petitionchallenging FERC-approved tariff revisions of South Georgia NaturalGas on the grounds that it in part amounted to a “collateralattack” on Order 636, which the court previously upheld.

The Georgia Industrial Group (GIG), which represents Georgia andAlabama industrial gas users, challenged a FERC ruling thatpermanently exempted former firm sales customers of South Georgiafrom pre-granted abandonment requirements and subjected non-exemptcustomers to the right-of-first-refusal mechanism. It furtherobjected to FERC’s decision on the pipeline’s “no-bump” rule asbeing “unjust and unreasonable” in post-Order 636. But the courtsided with South Georgia on all three issues.

“…[W]e dismiss the petition insofar as it collaterally attacksOrder 636 with respect to the Commission’s approval of SouthGeorgia’s pre-granted abandonment requirements, subject to theright-of-first-refusal mechanism, and deny the petition withrespect to the Commission’s refusal to waive its pre-grantedabandonment requirement or modify South Georgia’s historic no-bumptariff provision.”

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