Tackles

With the expanded standards of conduct poised to take effect Wednesday (Sept. 22), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has responded to a host of requests for waivers and exemptions from all or some of the requirements under the standards of conduct governing the relationships between regulated natural gas/electric transmission providers and their affiliates.

The growing variability in the composition of natural gas delivered to American consumers is creating a number of new operational, reliability and safety concerns, but a coalition of industry representatives told FERC last week that substantial research remains to be done before recommendations can be made on how to deal with the problem.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working on a temporary interim rule that would add regulation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater ports to the agency’s jurisdiction. The interim rule is expected to be published shortly — “more likely” after Jan. 1, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working on a temporary interim rule that would add regulation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deepwater ports to the agency’s jurisdiction. The interim rule is expected to be published shortly — “more likely” after Jan. 1, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

FERC last Wednesday granted a request by Tuscarora Gas Transmission to cancel the second phase of a planned pipeline expansion that was intended to serve a power generation plant proposed by Duke Energy. The pipeline asked the Commission to vacate the certificate order for this phase of the project after Duke Energy North America LLC placed on indefinite hold its plans for a 540 MW Washoe generating facility near Reno, NV.

FERC on Wednesday granted a request by Tuscarora Gas Transmission to cancel the second phase of a planned pipeline expansion that was intended to serve a power generation plant proposed by Duke Energy. The pipeline asked the Commission to vacate the certificate order for this phase of the project after Duke Energy North America LLC placed on indefinite hold its plans for a 540 MW Washoe generating facility near Reno, NV.

The Democrats hardly mentioned the word “energy” in theirplatform at the August convention, but President Clinton last weektried to make up for that omission by ordering the release of 30million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve(SPR), as well as a record $400 million of funding for energyassistance to low-income households for this winter.

After 18 months in the making, FERC yesterday unveiled itsmuch-anticipated mega-rule that tackles a full plate of post-Order636 reforms designed to promote greater efficiency and fairness inan ever-changing natural gas market.

Almost a third of gas and oil companies surveyed expect to havecompleted Year-2000 (Y2K) remediation by the end of the year,according to the results of a new survey by the Natural Gas Council (NGC) that was released last week. It further found that73% said they would be ready by June 1999, while all respondentsindicated they would be ready by December 1999.