FERC expands authority over local distribution facilities and services
✍ Scribed by Moring, Frederick
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Weight
- 335 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0743-5665
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
LDCs
FERC Expands Authority over Local Distribution Facilities and Services
n July 1995, a group of municipal LDCs in I Utah submitted a petition to FERC seeking a declaratory order interpreting the state-federal jurisdictional boundary with respect to certain intrastate facilities. Without prejudging or predicting the action FERC can be expected to take in the Utah situation, the filing illustrates what is becoming a significant issue for more LDCs, that is, that FERC seems more inclined to resolve state versus federal regulation issues involving local, intrastate gas supply activities in favor of federal regulation. This attitude on the Commission's part reflects a departure from the historical norm embodied in the Natural Gas Act (NGA).
LDC activities have generally been exempt from NGA regulation (under NGA Sections l(b) and l(c)) and are within the exclusive purview of state agencies. LDCs need to be sensitive to the Commission's expansive approach to its authority to regulate what are arguably local distribution activities and to be aware of how this additional federal regulation of LDCs affects their interests and those of their customers. A review of two cases currently pending in court and at the Commission provides a good look at FERC's current approach to the state-federal ground rules affecting LDC operations.