Parties File Exceptions to FERC Judge’s Initial Decision on Remand Regarding Seaway Crude Pipeline’s Rates and Terms of Service

摘要

Seaway Crude Pipeline Co. LLC5 (IS12-226) and other parties on or about 6/9/14 filed their exceptions to the Initial Decision on Remand issued on May 9 that dealt with rates and terms of service that may be applied on the approximately 500-mile, 30-inch diameter Seaway pipeline that provides north-to-south transportation of crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast at Jones Creek, Texas.6 The overriding issue, in Seaway’s opinion, is the need for the Commission “once again to uphold its established policy of honoring committed shipper rates entered into as part of a valid open season.” The Initial Decision violated that policy by recommending that the Commission replace the committed shipper rates with rates lower than those the pipeline and the committed shippers agreed to in their contracts. The Initial Decision adopted Trial Staff’s argument, instead, that Seaway’s committed rates must be lowered in order to prevent over-recovery on a cost-of-service basis. Also at stake, in Seaway’s opinion, is the Commission’s “fundamental institutional interest in ensuring that the Commission’s administrative law judges apply Commission policy.” Here, the Initial Decision directly contravened the Commission’s established committed rate policy as set forth in numerous decisions.