Mandating

A major interstate natural gas pipeline association has filed a petition in federal court challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule mandating the reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The “most significant” and what likely will prove to be the “most expensive” rule mandating periodic inspections of interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines is due to be published in the Federal Register today (Dec. 15) and will take effect 30 days later.

The “most significant” and what likely will prove to be the “most expensive” rule mandating periodic inspections of interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines will be posted to the web site of the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) Friday and published in the Federal Register on Monday (Dec. 15), according to OPS and pipeline company officials.

The states’ practice of mandating the assignment of LDC-heldupstream capacity to marketers as an “express condition” toallowing them or their customers access to an unbundled natural gasmarketplace flies in the face of antitrust laws and FERC’s gasrestructuring rule, contends Enron Corp.’s marketing arm.

The states’ practice of mandating the assignment of LDC-heldupstream capacity to marketers as an “express condition” toallowing them or their customers access to an unbundled natural gasmarketplace flies in the face of antitrust laws and FERC’s gasrestructuring rule, contends Enron Corp.’s marketing arm.

Legislation has been introduced in the Virginia General Assemblythat would establish a framework for gas restructuring in thestate, authorizing, but not mandating, utilities to implementstatewide customer choice programs.

Mandating the use of a pre-filing collaborative process fornatural gas pipelines would do more harm than good, and in the endcould thwart industry’s efforts to build enough transportationcapacity to support a 30 Tcf market by 2010, a major pipeline groupsays.