The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has issued final regulations to guide the restructuring of intrastate transportation services offered by natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) in the state. The PUC issued the new rules as a "tentative order" to allow additional comments from interested parties because of ongoing changes in the gas industry, and because over two years had passed since it issued proposed rules.
Eleven members of the U.S. House of Representatives have written to Chair Elizabeth A. Moler asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to address competitive issues arising from the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has refused to rehear or modify a June 15, 1995, rate order (Opinion 397) that denied Lakehead Pipe Line Partners, L.P. any income-tax allowance related to "curative allocations" under section 704(c) of the Internal Revenue Code that increase the general partner's taxable income beyond his or her proportion of company ownership.
The ruling (Opinion 397-A) affirms Lakehead's entitlement to a tax allowance based on the income attributable to corporate partners, but imposes a limit.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Donald F. Santa, Jr. looked beyond Order 888 electric restructuring when he addressed the second annual DOE/EPRI Executive Conference in Washington, DC, on May 21. According to Santa, the post-Order 888 electric agenda will be marked by three cross-cutting issues.
First, the FERC will grapple with market power in an open-access environment. While open access will mitigate the market power of transmission-owning utilities, the FERC needs to consider market power stemming from generation concentration.
In response to a request for comments on negotiated terms and conditions of service, the Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.
About 90 parties have filed petitions seeking changes to Order 888. Claiming "errors," the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reverse its assertion of:
s Jurisdiction over unbundled retail transmission services
s "Primary" authority over retail stranded-cost recovery when retail consumers convert to wholesale
s "Backstop" authority to provide stranded-cost recovery when an end user changes power suppliers under a state-established retail wheeling system.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on May 29 found that a nonjurisdictional utility's voluntary open-access tariff, with certain modifications, would meet the electric transmission comparability standards established by Order 888. In the first case of its kind, the South Carolina Public Service Authority (SCPSA) has agreed to satisfy the reciprocity requirement that it offer nondiscriminatory transmission services to obtain open-access service from public utilities (Docket No. NJ96-1-000).
SCPSA submitted the open-access tariff before Order 888 came out.
Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCPL) and UtiliCorp United Inc. (UU), which announced plans to merge on January 22, have amended their merger agreement in response to a hostile takeover attempt by Western Resources, Inc. The revised terms create a new KCPL subsidiary, which would be merged into UU. The resulting company would then be merged with KCPL to form the combined company. UU shareholders would receive one share in the merged company for each UU share held. KCPL shareholders would continue to hold their existing KCPL shares.
Puget Sound Power & Light Co. (PSPL) has asked the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to approve a plan that would allow large customers to access electricity at market cost, and all customers to choose their electric suppliers within five years. The proposal is contingent upon approval of PSPL's proposed merger with Washington Energy Co.
The United States Telephone Association has called for more voluntary interconnection agreements between telecom companies, claiming that the resulting competition will bring consumers more choices. USTA cited more than 50 signed agreements with companies that want to connect to the local network, and nearly 500 ongoing negotiations.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the Gas Research Institute's request for a 20-percent cut in its 1996 research, development, and commercialization budget.