The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to issue notationally an order that would allow interstate natural gas pipelines to roll into their rates the costs of security upgrades, according to industry sources.

If this happens, “it would surely be a step in the right direction…a very positive move,” said Jerald V. Halvorsen, president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), a trade group which represents interstate pipelines. “I’m sure it is” in reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. this week, he noted.

“I think security will be the focus of everything for a while,” Halvorsen told NGI. He anticipates that Congress will hold a number of hearings to explore what steps FERC, the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety are taking to protect pipelines and other energy infrastructure from potential terrorist attacks.

“We would applaud” this effort, Halvorsen said.

Interstate gas pipelines have been in a state of high alert since early Tuesday when terrorists plowed commercial airliners into the twin 110-story towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and the Pentagon military headquarters in Washington, causing innumerable damages and deaths.

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