FERC Regulated Third-Party Compliance Monitoring and Variance Request Program ― Case Study during Construction of the Alliance Pipeline Project

摘要

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) generally monitors construction of natural gas pipelines on a periodic basis to document compliance with the environmental conditions and requirements of the Certificate issued for the project. Because monitoring is only occasional, the FERC staff is not always aware of site-specific conditions that affect construction on a daily basis. As such, decisions regarding variance requests by the pipeline company to apply alternative mitigation often require time for the FERC staff to become familiar with the conditions that may cause or initiate the requests. To increase environmental compliance during construction, and to reduce the time required for decisions regarding variance requests and alternative mitigation, Alliance Pipeline L.P. (Alliance) developed and implemented a third-party Compliance Monitoring Program in conjunction with the FERC staff. The overall objective of the program was to monitor environmental compliance during construction of the Alliance Pipeline in order to achieve a high level of environmental compliance. From Alliance's perspective, it was also important to minimize the time required for review and approval of variance requests. This was accomplished by providing a third-party compliance manager and monitors, as representatives of the FERC staff, a limited, predetermined level of decision-making authority to approve requests for variances and implementation of alternative mitigation measures. Other objectives of the program were to assist in the timely resolution of compliance issues in the field and to provide fast and accurate information to the FERC staff regarding construction conditions and progress, as well as noncompliance issues and their resolution. Implementation of this program resulted in a higher, more continuous level of compliance monitoring by the FERC staff during construction. It also allowed the staff to objectively consider and assess changes in site-specific conditions that affected construction, and apply these considerations to the assessment of environmental compliance and the review of variance requests.