The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is undertaking a “comprehensive” review of the reporting requirements for natural gas pipelines, the electricity industry and oil pipelines to determine which still are needed and which aren’t.

For the first time ever, FERC staff is sifting through its reporting requirements to “decide what is essential…to meet the Commission’s needs for monitoring and regulating,” said a staff member involved in the effort. Currently, he noted the Commission has 43 reporting requirements and forms specifically for electricity, gas pipelines and oil pipelines, and three generic reporting requirements.

At the same time, “we need to streamline the existing reporting requirements to make them more pertinent, more focused and concise,” he reported to the full Commission during its regular meeting Wednesday. He said he expects FERC to issue a final rule on the issue eventually.

“We’ve just taken the first step” in this effort, the agency staff member noted, adding that the most important work still lies ahead. He indicated staff plans to meet with industry, state regulators and consumer advocates to discuss how the agency’s informational needs can be met without “unduly burdening reporting entities.”

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