Ratified

Canada’s arctic natural gas development scheme has advanced a step by receiving final regulatory approval, after the federal cabinet in Ottawa ratified the favorable decision in December by the National Energy Board (NEB) (see Daily GPI, Dec. 20, 2010).

Members of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) have ratified standards to implement FERC Order 2004 which significantly broadened the scope of energy affiliates that will be subject to the agency’s standards of conduct governing the relationships between regulated natural gas pipeline/electric transmission providers and their affiliates (see Daily GPI, Nov. 26, 2003 and April 15, 2004). The rule, set to go into effect Sept. 1, significantly expanded the current Order 497 regulations governing regulated pipeline and power transmission providers and preferential treatment, information disclosure and employee sharing with their marketing and wholesale merchant affiliates. The expanded rules apply to traders, producers, gatherers, processors, intrastate and Hinshaw pipelines, and any affiliate making a sale for resale of natural gas or electric energy in interstate commerce. The new standards set out by NAESB include a package of modifications of existing definitions and standards, the deletion of several principles and definitions, the creation of a new principle and the modification of one interpretation. NAESB members approved the standards in balloting that closed June 25.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has ratified a resolution calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider its recent decision removing the five-year cap that limited the length of contract term that an existing shipper must match in order renew an expiring pipeline contract under the right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) process (see NGI, Nov. 4). The action came at the group’s annual meeting in Chicago last week.