Commissioner James Danly Statement
August 29, 2023
Docket No. RP23-887-000
I agree with the Commission’s decision to approve Columbia Gulf Transmission, LLC’s Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement (Settlement).[1] As I stated in my separate statement in Kinetica Deepwater Express, LLC, I suggest to anyone participating in the natural gas industry that it might be prudent to be clearer in your settlement agreements as to whether you are actually a party to that agreement.[2] Though I understand that the use of an attachment listing parties supporting or not opposing a settlement is common in the industry,[3] situations will almost certainly arise in which an entity’s status as party or non-party to a settlement will be dispositive. This will be even more important should the issue be presented to a body less indifferent to fundamentals of contract law than this Commission.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] See Columbia Gulf Transmission, LLC, 184 FERC ¶ 61,122 (2023).
[2] Kinetica Deepwater Express, LLC, 175 FERC ¶ 61,048 (2021) (Danly, Comm’r, concurring in part & dissenting in part at P 10 n.12).
[3] See Settlement at App. A (listing “entities” that “either support or do not oppose the . . . Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement” as “Settling Parties”).