Conditions for Tacoma LNG facility agreement set by Washington UTC
The regulatory services staff of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) announced on Friday that it would enter into an all-party settlement agreement to financially protect customers in relation to the activities of Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE’s) proposed LNG facility in Tacoma.
Under the terms of the agreement, Puget Energy, PSE’s parent company, would be permitted to create Puget LNC, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary that would be established specifically for the purpose of owning, developing and financing the Tacoma LNG facility.
The Tacoma LNG facility would be owned and operated under a joint operating agreement by PSE and Puget LNG. In addition to a separate safety review conducted by the commission’s Pipeline Safety Section, the agreement will be reviewed by the three-member commission, which will have the authority to accept, reject or modify the settlement.
The purpose of the agreement is to protect customers from financial liability for any non-regulated actions undertaken at the Tacoma LNG facility. While the present agreement pertains only to the formation of the new corporate structure and PSE’s proposed ownership interest, the prudency of the Tacoma LNG infrastructure investments will be evaluated by the UTC once the facility is completed and online.
