Rulemaking

The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking public comments on a petition for rulemaking from the City of Fall River, MA, to establish thermal and vapor dispersion exclusion zones for marine spills of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that would be similar to those for spills of LNG on land.

The natural gas industry has “turned a corner” in bolstering confidence in the system for reporting prices on gas trades to publishers of price indexes, said the head of FERC’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI) Tuesday.

Seeking greater transparency and consistency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to revise accounting regulations for treatment of the retirement of tangible long-lived assets. The rule would provide a specific method of accounting for costs incurred in the retirement and removal of assets such as pipelines, power plants, buildings, etc., where there is a legal obligation to decommission and/or remove them. The NOPR would add new balance sheet and income statement accounts to the Uniform Systems of Accounts and revise the Commission’s annual report forms (1, 1-F, 2, 2-A, 6) to include the new accounts and revised schedules. The proposed effective date of the rule would be Jan. 1, 2003.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioners Wednesday agreed to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking broadening the application of standards of conduct for transmission providers, including both natural gas pipelines and power lines, to require separation of the regulated monopolies from any other company affiliate.

The Iowa Utilities Board has moved toward certifying natural gasmarketers in the state after issuing a proposed rulemaking thatsets different standards for small- and large- volume customers,specifically focusing on smaller customers who may not have theresources to evaluate a potential marketer.

The Iowa Utilities Board is moved toward certifying natural gasmarketers in the state after issuing a proposed rulemaking lastweek. The proposal sets different standards for small- and large-volume customers, specifically focusing on smaller customers whomay not have the resources to evaluate a potential marketer.

Implementation of a mandatory capacity auction, as proposed byFERC in its mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), couldjeopardize the opportunity for natural gas to gain a greater shareof the prized electricity market in the future.

Implementation of a mandated capacity auction, as proposed byFERC in its mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), couldsignificantly thwart the opportunity for natural gas to gain agreater share of the prized electricity market in the future.

The first of a series of industry meetings aimed at addressingthe controversial issues in the mega-notice of proposed rulemaking(NOPR) and notice of inquiry (NOI) gets underway in Houston today.Many are hoping the sessions will provide the way for the bickeringsegments of the gas industry to achieve common ground on some ofthe top issues posed by FERC.