News Release:
February 27, 2018
A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff inquiry has revealed no evidence of anticompetitive withholding of natural gas pipeline capacity on Algonquin Gas Transmission by New England shippers.
The Commission will take no further action on the matter. The inquiry arose out of allegations made by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in an August 2017 white paper, which asserted that local gas distribution companies in New England had engaged in practices to withhold pipeline capacity on the Algonquin system in order to drive up gas and/or power prices in the region.
Commission staff took these allegations very seriously and conducted an extensive review of both publicly available and non-public data.
On the basis of that review, staff determined that EDF’s study was flawed and led to incorrect conclusions about the alleged withholding. Commission staff found no evidence of capacity withholding.
FERC’s Office of Enforcement’s Division of Analytics and Surveillance routinely monitors wholesale natural gas and power markets to look for potential market manipulation and any other inappropriate behavior.
R-18-12