Commissioner James Danly Statement
April 30, 2021
Docket No. RP21-144-000
I concur in today’s order rejecting the revised tariff records filed by Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage, Inc. (Eastern).
I write separately to express two points: first, I have misgivings regarding the Commission’s finding that Eastern provided insufficient evidence that was based on “off-system” studies “that did not involve NGA-jurisdictional pipelines” and “merely relies on the non-binding findings of research reports on systems and situations unrelated to its own system.”[1] In my view, this finding could be read as the Commission establishing an evidentiary burden that a pipeline company could only satisfy by demonstrating that corrosion had already occurred on an interstate pipeline as a result of transporting renewable natural gas. While the Commission should be trying to minimize unnecessary restrictions on available natural gas supplies, such a burden seems to tip the scale in favor of maximizing supply (at least in the short run), not “balance” it with “safety and reliability concerns.”[2]
Second, the order issued November 30, 2020, improvidently suspended Eastern’s revised tariff records “subject to refund and the outcome of the technical conference established herein.”[3] As I have previously indicated,[4] section 4 of the Natural Gas Act requires the Commission to first set the revised tariff records for hearing in order to suspend a rate filing and subject it to refund. A “hearing” is “[a]ny setting in which an affected person presents arguments to a decision-maker.”[5] It is my understanding that in this case, the technical conference was not attended by the commissioners (the decision-makers) and there is no transcript. In the future, the Commission should hold technical conferences on the record.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] Dominion Energy Transmission, Inc., 175 FERC ¶ 61,091, at P 24 (2021). See also id. P 22 (“Nor has Eastern documented any gas quality concerns that it seeks to address with its proposal that are specific to its own system.”).
[2] Id. P 20, n.22 (quoting Provisions Governing Nat. Gas Quality & Interchangeability in Interstate Nat. Gas Pipeline Co. Tariffs, 115 FERC ¶ 61,325, at PP 2, 30 (2006) (Gas Quality Policy Statement)). This burden also appears to exceed that in the Commission’s Gas Quality Policy Statement, which states, “[t]he Commission expects that specifications for natural gas quality and interchangeability will be based upon sound technical, engineering, and scientific considerations.” 115 FERC ¶ 61,325 at P 31.
[3] Dominion Energy Transmission, Inc., 173 FERC ¶ 61,188, at P 16 (2020) (emphasis added).
[4] See my separate statements in Texas Eastern Transmission, LP, 174 FERC ¶ 61,206 (2021), Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG, LP, 174 FERC ¶ 61,139 (2021), and Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC, 174 FERC ¶ 61,070 (2021).
[5] Hearing, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).