Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has called on FERC to issue anoffshore policy that’s conducive to private-sector investment innew technologies and the natural gas infrastructure in the Gulf ofMexico. Such a policy would be in keeping with the Clintonadministration’s 1993 domestic natural gas and oil initiative, hewrote in a letter to Chairman James Hoecker.

The Commission initiated an inquiry into its offshore policyfollowing an appellate court remand in late 1997, whichrecommended that FERC revise its test for determining gathering andtransportation facilities in the Outer Continental Shelf.

Richardson noted that FERC’s policy review was both “timely andimportant,” given that the Gulf currently counts for about 27% of”indigenous” domestic gas supplies and is “increasingly important”to the energy security of the United States.

He said the Department of Energy (DOE) supports a regulatoryregime in the Gulf that would encourage competitive transportationoptions for offshore producers and onshore purchasers of gas. “Ofcourse, the development of such options requires the evenhandedtreatment of all participants.”

In the final analysis, the department urged FERC to “removeartificial regulatory barriers, which might impede private-sectorinvestment, the development of advanced technologies, and thedevelopment of competitive transportation markets in the Gulf ofMexico,” Richardson said.

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