Three of the four leading natural gas trade associations onFriday were said to be either definitely on board or “favorablyinclined” to jointly ask FERC for a second extension of thedeadline for industry comments on the major notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR) and notice of inquiry (NOI) that were issued inJuly [RM98-10, RM98-12]. A source indicated there was a “50-50chance” that the lone association holdout would sign on too.

The joint request, which reportedly is being initiated by theInterstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), would be fora six-month extension from the current Jan. 22nd deadline, andcould be filed at the Commission as early as this week. A possiblereason for the delay is that one of the groups is trying to buytime to broker a compromise with the other three associations on avoluntary auction proposal, the source said. This would makepipeline participation in capacity auctioning optional, as opposedto the mandatory route that FERC seems to favor.

This would mark the second time that FERC has been asked to pushback the comment deadline for the NOPR and NOI. In early October,it granted a 74-day delay to Jan. 22nd from Nov. 9th. The extensionrequest then came from the top four gas associations – INGAA, theNatural Gas Supply Association, the American Gas Association andthe Independent Petroleum Association of America – and the ProcessGas Consumers Group/American Iron and Steel Institute, and theNational Association of Consumer Advocates.

Meanwhile, another report has FERC staff meeting privately withindividual industry segments to trouble-shoot problems with theauction proposal. This is in addition to the second technicalconference on NOPR issues the Commission has scheduled for Dec. 8.

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