The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) said Thursday that it modified and then adopted a stipulation and recommendation from Columbia Gas of Ohio and a collaborative group of parties that relates to Columbia’s rate, natural gas choice program, gas cost recovery, and long-term forecast report, among other things.

The commission declined to pre-approve Columbia’s decision regarding the amount of interstate pipeline capacity it intended to lock in through Oct. 31, 2010. PUCO found that Columbia is responsible for its capacity decisions without pre-approval and those decisions will be reviewed in subsequent biennial audits of the company’s natural gas procurement activities.

PUCO also declined to mandate that natural gas marketers participating in Columbia’s choice program must obtain 75% of their interstate capacity directly from Columbia. The commission determined that this should be an individually negotiated arrangement between Columbia and the natural gas marketers. Thirdly, the Commission changed the allocation of revenues generated through off-system sales and capacity release activities. The commission also declined to approve a customer migration cost recovery rider.

Finally, PUCO modified the provisions in the stipulation providing for a base rate freeze and deferral authority for future recovery of amounts spent on infrastructure investment by shortening the time period of the deferral authority and base rate freeze from Oct. 31, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2007.

With the new modifications in place, each signatory party in the Columbia group can file an application for rehearing or choose to terminate and withdraw the stipulation within 30 days of Thursday’s decision. Upon rehearing, PUCO said that the signatory parties have 15 days from the commission’s entry on rehearing to file a notice of termination or withdrawal from the stipulation.

However, if the signatory parties do not terminate and withdraw the stipulation, they must file a letter of acceptance of the modified stipulation within 35 days of Thursday’s decision or within 20 days of a decision on rehearing if the latter occurs.

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