Compliance

FERC enforcement authorities Thursday said they planned to conduct audits of four regulated natural gas companies to determine if they are in compliance with certain agency regulations.

National Grid and KeySpan Corp. have filed information in compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act, a requirement of their proposed merger transaction, the companies said on Friday. In addition, National Grid and KeySpan have made voluntary notice to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that National Grid, a London-headquartered company, is acquiring a U.S. company. In both the HSR and CFIUS filings, the applicable federal authority has 30 days to determine if the filings require further review. On Feb. 27, National Grid and KeySpan announced an agreement for National Grid to acquire KeySpan, which will materially expand the size of National Grid’s US operations and create the third-largest gas delivery utility in the U.S. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 28). In May, National Grid and KeySpan submitted their merger plan to FERC, promising no adverse impacts on the wholesale energy market nor any cross subsidization from regulated to unregulated operations from the $7.3 billion combination (see Daily GPI, May 30).

FERC last Wednesday announced procedures to bring more than 200 companies into compliance with Commission regulations or have them risk losing their market-based rate authority.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) last week asked FERC to identify any examples in which the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) has interfered with boosting supplies of natural gas to the Northeast. At the same time, a pipeline association urged legislation to streamline the CZMA processes.

Responding to two court opinions that said FERC had over-stepped its jurisdiction, the Commission last Wednesday rolled back a four-year-old decision in which it exerted authority under the lighter-handed Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to impose uniform reporting requirements on all natural gas pipelines operating on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Energy trading companies should leap into action with “an aggressive compliance program in-house,” including a regimen of standards and procedures to weed out unacceptable market behavior, a veteran attorney in the regulatory arena told the mid-year meeting of the Energy Bar Association.

Energy trading companies should leap into action with “an aggressive compliance program in-house,” including a regimen of standards and procedures to weed out unacceptable market behavior, a veteran attorney in the regulatory arena told the mid-year meeting of the Energy Bar Association.

FERC late Thursday said that it is launching an investigation as a result of allegations that former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow and Enron executive Michael Kopper created partnerships to mask the former energy trading giant’s stake in three wind power farms.

Federal review of all future energy mergers for compliance with antitrust laws will rest entirely with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) worked out between the FTC and the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.