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GRI Restructuring Settlement Okayed
Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner last weekcertified to FERC for its approval the Gas Research Institute (GRI)funding settlement that sets the stage for its seven-year journeyto become a voluntary-funded organization.
The settlement, which was reached in January, “is the absolutebest solution that can be achieved among the numerous [gasindustry] parties with their many diverse and conflictinginterests.
Opposed to the settlement are East Coast Distributors andWashington Gas Light. Still, it “clearly meets the Commission’sdirection for a broadly based [agreement] that would ensure acontinuation of the core program and a transition to voluntaryfunding,” he noted. There are “no issues of material fact” thatshould stand in the way of certification.
The settlement maintains GRI’s 1998 budget at $164 million, andwould cap it at $132 million in 1999 and at $98 million in 2000,with funding covering both core and none-core research anddevelopment (R&D) projects for the natural gas industry. In thefollowing four years (2001-2004), however, only core researchprojects would be included in GRI’s budgets, which would be cappedat $70 million in 2001 and at $60 million in the subsequent years.Starting in 2005, GRI-sponsored gas research would be fundedcompletely through voluntary contributions rather than via amandatory surcharge, as is done now.
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