Commissioner James Danly Statement
June 23, 2022
Docket No. RP21-1042-003
I agree with the Commission’s decision to approve Rover Pipeline LLC’s Stipulation and Agreement (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] Rover Pipeline LLC, 179 FERC ¶ 61,212 (2022).
[2] Kinetica Deepwater Express, LLC, 175 FERC ¶ 61,048 (2021) (Danly, Comm’r, concurring in part and dissenting in part at P 10 n.12).
[3] See Settlement at App. A (listing Settling Parties); id. at Article V.1 (defining “Settling Party” as meaning “(a) any party listed on Appendix A, including Rover; (b) any party not listed on Appendix A that files any document with the Commission in this proceeding stating that it (i) expressly supports the Settlement as a whole and each of its underlying provisions, or (ii) does not oppose the Settlement as a whole and each of its underlying provisions; (c) any party not listed on Appendix A that does not file any document at the Commission concerning the Settlement; or (d) any party that becomes a Settling Party pursuant to Section 4 of this Article V.”).