Court upholds FERC preemption of state regulation

✍ Scribed by Moring, Frederick

• Book ID: 102220943
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Weight: 346 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0743-5665
• DOI: 10.1002/gas.3410150408

✦ Synopsis

the D.C. Circuit affirmed I FERC's order in the "Wheeler Ridge" case (California PUC v. FERC, 143 F 3d. 610 (DC Circuit 1998)). In this case, FERC had upheld a complaint in which several interstate gas producer/shippers argued that a state-approved rate being collected by SoCalGas from those shippers was preempted by the Natural Gas Act (NGA). This rate, known as an "access charge," was intended to recover SoCal's cost of constructing interconnection facilities located between its intrastate distribution system and the interstate pipelines of the Kern River Transmission Co. and Mojave Pipeline Co. As affirmed by the court, FERC's ruling appears to expand the scope of federal regulation at the expense of state authority. The fact pattern presented does not seem all that unique and may have numerous analogs in the dynamic, restructured gas industry. Thus my purpose here is to use this case as the basis for some commentary of general interest to LDCs, state regulators, interstate gas shippers, and others.