Panhandle Makes LDC Cases Ineffective
✍ Scribed by Henke, Michael J.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Weight
- 349 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0743-5665
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Mike Henke as our new litigation columnist.
A decade ago Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, like many other interstate gas pipelines, found itself in a difficult and uncomfortable position. During the gas shortage of the 1970s the pipeliie had sought to protect its customers and to assure a gas supply by entering into longtern take-or-pay contracts, oftenathighprices, withvarious suppliers.
However, as the incentive-pricing provisions of the Natural Gas Policy Act began to bite and as gas prices declined due to burgeoning supplies in the early 198Os, Panhandle's customers found that they could purchase offsystem gas more cheaply than that offered by the pipeline and sought to have Panhandle transport such off-system gas forthem. Panhandle found itselfpinched between producers insistent on enforcing the pipelime's take-or-pay obligations and customers (including LDCs) who desired to purchase