INGAA urges FERC to deny American Public Gas Association, Natural Gas Supply Association petitions
Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) President and CEO Don Santa sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) advocating the denial of petitions filed by the American Public Gas Association (APGA), the Natural Gas Supply Association and various state advocates.
The petitions requested that FERC require all jurisdictional natural gas pipelines to submit compliance filings addressing the impacts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) on their maximum recourse rates.
Santa’s letter said that the petitions are contrary to FERC policy supporting full rate proceeding and the law concerning the negotiated agreements that establish the rates of many interstate pipelines.
“INGAA requests that FERC reject a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that ignores the specific facts, market conditions and overall costs and revenues associated with each pipeline,” INGAA said in a press release.
FERC decides whether an overall rate is just and reasonable, not any individual component of the rate, Santa’s letter noted.
“[C]ustomers receiving service under negotiated or discounted rates likely are not bearing the full costs of income taxes (or any other cost‐of‐service component) and will not necessarily benefit from any reduction to recourse rates,” Santa said. “The market conditions faced by interstate natural gas pipelines are in stark contrast to the situation of state‐regulated utilities with franchised service territories that typically are able to collect their maximum rates and pass through costs in routine rate cases.”
