The Pipeline Customer Coalition (PCC) said it plans to supportthe proposed complaint procedures that would encourage parties tovoluntarily use dispute-resolution measures to settle theircommercial differences up-front in an attempt to expedite theprocess at FERC.

Specifically, it supports the Commission requiring interstatepipelines to maintain in their tariffs or “any public documentanalogous thereto” informal complaint resolution procedures.Industry comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR)recommending reforms to the complaint process, which was issued inJuly, are due at the Commission next Monday.

The coalition – which is made up of producers, marketers,distributors and end-users – will suggest “some refinements” nextweek, but it does not intend to propose “broad structural changes”to the Commission’s complaint NOPR that would apply uniformly tonatural gas pipelines, electric utilities, oil pipelines andhydroelectric concerns, said Fred Moring, a Washington D.C.attorney representing the group.

As an example of some refinements, the coalition will suggestthat FERC extend the time for parties to respond to filedcomplaints to 20 days rather than 10 days. “We think that [10 days]is too quick. We think you would get a much better response if youwould give the parties 20 days,” Moring noted.

Coalition members still are concerned that the Commission’semphasis on the use of arbitration or other resolution measuresprior to filing a complaint could delay the process even further,and consequently could mean lost money for producers and otherpipeline customers since the Natural Gas Act doesn’t provide forretroactive refunds, he said. “That’s still a problem. There’s noquestion about it. We’re not saying that [this] disappearssomehow.”

As “one way of finessing the refund problem,” however, hebelieves the Commission should consider providing interim relief incertain cases to complaining gas pipeline customers up-front -based on the “prima facie facts alleged” – pending final resolutionof a complaint. Such action by FERC, Moring emphasized, would be anexception since the complaining parties would have a “heavy burden”to prove that the interim relief was warranted.

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