Commissioner James Danly Statement
March 18, 2021
Docket No. IN19-4-000
Order: C-6
I concur in the issuance of an Order to Show Cause in this proceeding because I believe that Office of Enforcement staff (OE Staff) has provided sufficient evidence to suggest that Rover Pipeline, LLC and Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (jointly, Rover) may have misled the Commission. I remind everyone that there are two sides to every story. I am withholding judgement on whether Rover should be penalized and, if so, the appropriate amount of a penalty. I look forward to carefully reviewing Rover’s response and OE Staff’s reply.[1]
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] Section VI of the Staff Report (pages 67-70) lists the various factors that it used to arrive at the proposed penalty of $20,160,000. I note that when these factors are applied to the Revised Policy Statement on Penalty Guidelines, 132 FERC ¶ 61,216 (2010) (FERC Penalty Guidelines), the result leads to a penalty range of $10,080,000 to $20,160,000. Accordingly, the order proposes a penalty at the highest end of the range provided by the FERC Penalty Guidelines. I would be particularly interested in any evidence offered regarding remedy and whether imposing the highest possible penalty permitted by the FERC Penalty Guidelines under OE Staff’s allegations is appropriate given the facts alleged.