Appeals

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week remanded orders in aPanhandle Eastern Pipe Line case that it says marked a cleardeparture from FERC’s established policy on pipeline interconnectswithout providing any justification for the action.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last Monday to hear appeals byUSX-Marathon and Mobil regarding the drilling ban on leasesoffshore North Carolina. The two producers want to be refunded the$156 million they spent in 1981 on leases that became subject to adrilling ban in 1990 when Congress adopted the Outer BanksProtection Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear appeals byUSX-Marathon and Mobil regarding the drilling ban on leasesoffshore North Carolina. The two producers spent $156 million in1981 on leases that became subject to a drilling ban in 1990 whenCongress adopted the Outer Banks Protection Act.

Amoco Production and Amoco Energy Trading have wasted no time inpetitioning the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review FERC’srecent decision upholding Dynegy Marketing and Trade’s 1.3 Bcf/dcontract with El Paso Natural Gas.

The national heat wave continued through Friday into theweekend, and electric utilities continued to use appeals forcustomer conservation and other demand-side management tools tokeep juice flowing as needed. But the heavy cooling load lost itsability to keep cash gas prices moving higher. Instead, most pointswere about a dime or more down in flows for the last day of July,and although quotes for Sunday and Monday tended to surpass thosefor Saturday, they still were below monthly indexes. Sources citedthe usual drop in weekend demand, a small screen decrease andforecasts that major market areas will have cooled off a bit bytoday as reasons for the softness.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th District has reversed andremanded an order in which FERC asserted jurisdiction over two KNWattenberg Transmission laterals that provide connecting servicefrom Colorado Interstate Gas to two food-processing plants in FortMorgan, CO., thus bypassing the municipal gas provider.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded Friday a FERCdecision approving a 20-year cap on bids for Tennessee Gas Pipelinecapacity that are considered under the net-present-value approach.The Process Gas Consumers Group (PGC), which includes industrialgas users, challenged the Commission order, arguing that it failedto engage in “reasoned decision-making” by allowing the cap on theNPV bids. “…..[W]e find FERC’s reasoning on the cap to beunpersuasive and largely conclusory,” the court opined [No.98-1075]. The court said it didn’t “quarrel” with the goal behindthe Commission’s approval of the NPV capacity-allocation method forTennessee, “but [we] remind FERC of its admitted need to balancethe goal with its duty to prevent exploitation of Tennessee’smonopoly power. FERC appears to have forgotten the latter…..” PGCalso took issue with FERC’s decision allowing Tennessee to applyNPV to shippers attempting to change primary receipt and deliverypoints, and the court agreed with industrials on this point. Thecourt ordered the Commission to “better explain or modify” itsapproval of both issues.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has remanded FERC’s rejectionof a 1997 complaint in which Southern California Edison accusedSouthern California Gas (SoCalGas) of gaming the secondary marketfor firm capacity on key transportation links between the low-costSan Juan producing basin and the California border.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has remanded FERC’s rejectionof a 1997 complaint in which Southern California Edison accusedSouthern California Gas (SoCalGas) of gaming the secondary marketfor firm capacity on key transportation links between the low-costSan Juan producing basin and the California border.