ConocoPhillips' 2010 TAPS Rate Filing Draws Protests from State of Alaska and Anadarko

摘要

The State of Alaska told FERC that ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, Inc.'s (CPTAI's) (IS10-476) proposed new rate for the transportation of petroleum on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) (1) impermissibly includes imprudent and unlawful expenditures relating to the Strategic Reconfiguration Program (SR or SRP)1; (2) may impermissibly include costs relating to the dismantling and removal of TAPS facilities from the right-of-way; (3) assumes a life of the line that is significantly shorter than the actual life of the line; (4) fails to adjust the equity return to account for differences in the tax treatment of income derived by Master Limited Partnership (MLP) unitholders versus income derived by corporate shareholders; (5) improperly calculates the capital structure for the oil pipeline proxy group by excluding the current portion of long-term debt from the computation of long-term debt; and (6) may not accurately calculate appropriate operting costs and test period adjustments to those costs. Alaska moved that the Commission investigate CPTAI's proposal suspend that tariff, and impose a refund condition.