FERC Upholds ALJ's Ruling That ANR's Sale of Gas Held in Storage for Roughly 13 Years Conferred No Liability to Compensate Customers

摘要

FERC Opinion No. 508 issued 5/6/10 upheld a presiding administrative law judge's (ALJ's) conclusions in an initial decision ruling that ANR Pipeline Co. (RP07-439) was entitled to do what it wanted with gas it owned and held in storage for about 13 years, including keeping the proceeds of the eventual sale. ANR filed a report on 5/1/07 stating that the pipeline sold 2.6 Bcf of "Excess Gas" it owned and was not used in its operations and received $28,145,771 from the sales the year before. Protesters questioned ANR's holding the gas in storage for many years and its right to retain the proceeds. Their objections triggered an evidentiary hearing to examine all of the issues, but the Presiding Judge found that ANR owned the gas that was sold, that ANR was entitled to the proceeds from the sale, and there is no evidence to warrant equitable relief to ANR's customers for ANR's holding the gas at no cost to it from 1993 until it was sold in 2006. In Opinion 508 the Commission denied the exceptions and affirmed the Presiding Judge. FERC also made clear that it believes this is "unique" and presents issues not likely to reoccur and "thus any decision here will have little impact beyond this case. Thus, we see no policy implications from the rulings here that would bear on implementation of Order No. 636."