With FERC scheduled Wednesday to weigh in on the “safe harbor” protection request made by the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) on behalf of its Energy Data Hub (see Daily GPI, June14), more parties are voicing their objections and support on the issue to the Commission. In addition to safe harbor protections for the Energy Data Hub and those that report to the hub, the CCRO requested assurances that FERC will not use the Energy Data Hub as a target for investigations by the Commission into transaction data by the participating companies.

Calling the CCRO’s requests “unusual,” the IntercontinentalExchange said that while it leaves the merits of the requests and the Energy Data Hub itself to the Commission, it believes that it “would be inappropriate for the Commission to grant these requests conferring unique and preferential standing to an individual commercial initiative.”

If the Commission decides to grant the CCRO’s requests, IntercontinentalExchange said it would expect all provisions to apply equally to any entity that collects transaction data for distribution while complying with the requirements for index publishers in FERC’s Policy Statement on Natural Gas and Electric Price Indices, which was issued July 24, 2003. “With regard to Intercontinental specifically, we would expect both the ICE Trading Platform and the eConfirm trade confirmation system to qualify for all three provisions,” the company said.

In a letter thanking Commission Chairman Pat Wood for his “leadership in consistently supporting Commission and industry efforts to improve price reporting in the physical natural gas markets,” the American Public Gas Association (APGA) said Monday that his “recent public remarks on the need for a market-initiated independent data hub were timely and have been instrumental in keeping this important issue in play.”

The APGA said that because of the growth and the complexities of global energy markets, it is crucial to establish efficient, transparent, timely and accurate price discovery and reporting mechanisms. Noting that privately published indices “certainly have a role to play,” the group said other constructs such as an independent hub are, as Wood has remarked, an “idea whose time has come.”

The APGA said in the letter it has not endorsed the CCRO’s specific proposal for an Energy Data Hub, but that its members are supportive of continued open discussions of the independent hub concept.

“We look forward to hearing the thoughts and views of all four commissioners on the state of physical price reporting and the Commission’s appropriate role in improving the public’s access to abundant and transparent natural gas price data,” the APGA said.

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