Docket No. IN19-04-000
Items C-6
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today ordered Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. and Rover Pipeline, LLC (together, “Rover”) to explain why they should not be assessed a proposed civil penalty of $20.2 million for allegedly misleading the Commission regarding Rover’s purchase and destruction of an historic Ohio property.
In the Staff Report attached to today’s order, FERC Office of Enforcement (OE) staff allege that Rover failed to provide full and forthright information in its pipeline certificate application under the Natural Gas Act. The OE staff allege that during the application process for a certificate to build Rover’s $4.2 billion, 711-mile long pipeline, Rover made misrepresentations and omitted material information concerning the status and intended treatment of a historic house in Dennison, Ohio, known as the Stoneman House.
OE staff allege that Rover purchased the house in May 2015 and demolished it in May 2016 and, despite taking these actions during the year and a half that their application was pending before the Commission, Rover did not notify the Commission that it purchased, intended to destroy, and eventually did destroy, the Stoneman House.
OE staff allege that Rover violated FERC’s regulation requiring full, complete and forthright applications through its misrepresentations and omissions, including in its March 25, 2016, draft Environmental Impact Statement response and its updated landowner list, when it decided not to tell FERC that it had purchased the house and was considering demolishing it; and when Rover demolished it in May 2016 without notifying FERC.
Today’s order makes clear that issuance of the order does not indicate Commission adoption or endorsement of the Staff Report. Rover has 30 days to respond to the Commission’s order.
R21-27
(30)