Rejects

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday overturned and remanded a FERC decision which prohibited allocation of interruptible capacity on PG&E Gas Transmission, Northwest based on the total revenue deriving from a bid, saying the Commission failed to explain why it was departing from its own precedents.

The federal appeals court in Washington, DC dismissed last Tuesday a petition for review brought by Southern Natural Gas Co.’s shippers who claimed they were, or potentially will be, aggrieved by a FERC order that allows the pipeline to offer service to Southern Company Services (SCS) at lower rates than what they pay.

The federal appeals court in Washington, DC dismissed Tuesday a petition for review brought by Southern Natural Gas Co.’s shippers who claimed they were, or potentially will be, aggrieved by a FERC order that allows the pipeline to offer service to Southern Company Services (SCS) at lower rates than what they pay.

In a very broad initial decision issued last Tuesday, a FERC administrative law judge (ALJ) shot down nearly all of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s arguments in support of rolled-in rates for several Southeast expansions of the pipeline’s system that were built in the late 1990s. Instead, he recommended incremental pricing of the projects, which requires only those customers who directly benefit from expansions to pay the costs.

In a very broad initial decision issued late Tuesday, a FERC administrative law judge (ALJ) shot down nearly all of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s arguments in support of rolled-in rates for several Southeast expansions of the pipeline’s system that were built in the late 1990s. Instead, he recommended incremental pricing of the projects, which requires only those customers who directly benefit from expansions to pay the costs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected a complaint in which Pan-Alberta Gas (US) Inc. (PAGUS) accused Enron-affiliated Northern Border Pipeline Co. of trying to “subvert” its rights to match competing third-party bids for pipeline capacity under the right-of-first refusal (ROFR) process.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected a complaint in which Pan-Alberta Gas (US) Inc. (PAGUS) accused Enron-affiliated Northern Border Pipeline Co. of trying to “subvert” its rights to match competing third-party bids for pipeline capacity under the right-of-first refusal (ROFR) process.

FERC last Thursday rejected an effort by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to squeeze billions of dollars of refunds from power sellers into the state’s energy markets, disagreeing with the argument put forward by Lockyer that the Commission’s regulatory regime governing market-based rates violates the Federal Power Act (FPA) requirement that rates must be on file.

FERC’s “Christmas gift to the nation,” according to Chairman Pat Wood, was its approval of the first regional power transmission organization (RTO), covering basically half of the nation from North Carolina to North Dakota and as far south as Texas and Arkansas. The decision was lauded by consumer advocates and business organizations in the Midwest as a “positive first step to ensuring that the Midwest serves as an efficient and effective gateway for suppliers’ energy.”