Company: L
Filing Date: 2025-02-11
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000060086-25-000036
Chunk: 37

Company: LOEWS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-11
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 37
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 penalties and fines, in addition to reputational damage.

The Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) regulates the rates Boardwalk Pipelines charges for interstate service on its ethylene pipeline systems. The Louisiana Public Service Commission (“LPSC”) regulates the rates Boardwalk Pipelines charges for intrastate service within the state of Louisiana on its petrochemical and NGLs pipelines. The STB and LPSC require that Boardwalk Pipelines’ transportation rates are reasonable and that its practices cannot unreasonably discriminate among its shippers.

Boardwalk Pipelines is also regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) through the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, as amended (“NGPSA”) and the Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, as amended (“HLPSA”). The NGPSA and HLPSA govern the design, installation, testing, construction, operation, replacement and management of interstate natural gas and NGLs pipeline facilities. Boardwalk Pipelines has authority from PHMSA to operate certain natural gas pipeline assets under issued permits with specific conditions that allow it to operate those pipeline assets at higher than normal operating pressures of up to 0.80 of the pipeline’s Specified Minimum Yield Strength (“SMYS”). Operating at these pressures allows these pipelines to transport all the existing natural gas volumes Boardwalk Pipelines has contracted for on those facilities with its customers. PHMSA retains discretion whether to grant or maintain authority for Boardwalk Pipelines to operate its natural gas pipeline assets at higher pressures and, in the event that PHMSA should elect not to allow Boardwalk Pipelines to operate at these higher pressures, it could affect its ability to transport all of its contracted quantities of natural gas on these pipeline assets, and Boardwalk Pipelines could incur significant additional costs to reinstate this authority or to develop alternate ways to meet its contractual obligations. PHMSA’s regulations also require transportation pipeline operators to implement integrity management programs to comprehensively evaluate certain high-risk areas, known as high consequence areas (“HCAs”) and moderate consequence areas (“MCAs”), along pipelines and take additional safety measures to protect people and property in these areas. The HCAs for natural gas pipelines are predicated on high-population density areas (which, for natural gas transmission lines, include Class 3 and 4 areas and, depending on the potential impacts of a risk event, may include Class 1 and 2 areas) whereas HCAs along Board