149 FERC ¶ 61,144

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

18 CFR Parts 2, 157, and 380

[Docket No. RM12-11-002; Order No. 790-A]

Revisions to Auxiliary Installations, Replacement Facilities, 

and Siting and Maintenance Regulations

(Issued November 20, 2014)

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Final rule, order on rehearing and clarification.

SUMMARY: On rehearing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) 

reaffirms its basic determinations in Order No. 790 and modifies and clarifies certain 

aspects of the Final Rule. Order No. 790 amended the Commission’s regulations to 

(1) clarify that auxiliary installations added to existing or proposed interstate transmission 

facilities under section 2.55 of the Commission’s regulations must (a) be located within 

the authorized right-of-way or site for existing facilities or the right-of-way or site to be 

used for facilities proposed in a pending application for case-specific certificate authority 

or in a prior notice filing under the Commission’s Part 157 blanket certificate regulations, 

and (b) use only the same temporary work space that was or will be used to construct the 

existing or proposed facilities; and (2) codify the common industry practice of notifying 

landowners prior to coming onto their property to undertake section 2.55 projects, or 

certain Part 157, Subpart F replacements, or certain section 380.15 maintenance 

activities. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 2 -

EFFECTIVE DATE: This rule will become effective [Insert Date 60 days after 

publication in the FEDERAL REGISTER].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Katherine Liberty

Office of the General Counsel

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

(202) 502-6491

katherine.liberty@ferc.gov

Gordon Wagner

Office of the General Counsel

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

(202) 502-8947

gordon.wagner@ferc.gov

Howard Wheeler

Office of Energy Projects

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

(202) 502-8688

howard.wheeler@ferc.gov

Shannon Jones

Office of Energy Projects

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

888 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20426

(202) 502-6410

shannon.jones@ferc.gov

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Revisions to Auxiliary Installations, Replacement 

Facilities, and Siting and Maintenance Regulations

Docket No. RM12-11-002

ORDER NO. 790-A 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Paragraph Numbers

I. Background ............................................................................................................................3.

II. Discussion .............................................................................................................................11.

A. Section 2.55(a) Auxiliary Facilities ................................................................................11.

1. Commission’s Jurisdiction ...........................................................................................12.

2. Section 2.55 Siting and Construction Limitations........................................................26.

3. INGAA’s Response to the NOPR ................................................................................40.

4. Compliance with Executive Orders..............................................................................43.

B. Landowner Notification ...................................................................................................44.

1. Waiver of Five-Day Prior Notice .................................................................................45.

2. Emergency Exemption to Notice Requirement............................................................47.

3. Affected Landowners....................................................................................................50.

4. One-Call Obligations....................................................................................................53.

5. Burden Resulting from the Landowner Notification Requirement ..............................54.

C. Consistency with the Commission’s Regulations............................................................61.

III. Information Collection Statement .......................................................................................63.

IV. Environmental Analysis......................................................................................................65.

V. Document Availability..........................................................................................................66.

VI. Effective Date and Congressional Notification...................................................................69.
149 FERC ¶ 61,144

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION

Before Commissioners: Cheryl A. LaFleur, Chairman;

 Philip D. Moeller, Tony Clark,

and Norman C. Bay.

Revisions to Auxiliary Installations, Replacement 

Facilities, and Siting and Maintenance Regulations

Docket No. RM12-11-002

ORDER NO. 790-A

FINAL RULE

ORDER ON REHEARING AND CLARIFICATION

(Issued November 20, 2014)

1. On November 22, 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 

(Commission) issued a Final Rule in Order No. 790 that amended its regulations, 

effective February 3, 2014, to: (1) clarify that auxiliary installations added to existing or 

proposed interstate transmission facilities under section 2.55 of the Commission’s 

regulations1 must (a) be located within the authorized right-of-way or site for existing 

facilities or the right-of-way or site to be used for facilities proposed in a pending 

application for case-specific certificate authority or in a prior notice filing under the 

Commission’s Part 157 blanket certificate regulations, and (b) use only the same 

 1 18 CFR 2.55 (2014).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 2 -

temporary work space that was or will be used to construct existing or proposed facilities; 

and (2) codify the common industry practice of notifying landowners prior to coming 

onto their property to undertake section 2.55 projects, certain Part 157, Subpart F 

replacements, or certain section 380.15 maintenance activities.2

2. The Commission received two requests for rehearing and clarification of the Final 

Rule, one filed by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and the 

other filed jointly by National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation and Empire Pipeline, Inc. 

(referred to collectively as “National Fuel”). As discussed below, this order denies the 

requests for rehearing and grants and denies the requests for clarification.

I. Background

3. Section 7(c)(1)(A) of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) requires a natural gas company 

to have certificate authorization for the “construction or extension of any facilities.”3

 To 

“avoid the filing and consideration of unnecessary applications for certificates,”4 i.e., to 

save the time and expense that would otherwise be expended by companies and the 

Commission in undertaking a full, formal NGA section 7 certificate proceeding for every 

 2 Revisions to Auxiliary Installations, Replacement Facilities, and Siting and 

Maintenance Regulations, Order No. 790, 78 FR 72794-801 (Dec. 4, 2013), FERC Stats. 

& Regs. ¶ 31,351 (2013) (cross-referenced at 145 FERC ¶ 61,154 (2013)).

3 15 U.S.C. 717f(c)(1)(A) (2012).

4 Filing of Applications for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity, 

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, NOPR, 13 FR 6253, at 6254 (October 23, 1948). 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 3 -

modification to a jurisdictional pipeline system, section 2.55 establishes that for the 

purposes of section 7(c), “the word facilities as used therein shall be interpreted to 

exclude” auxiliary and replacement facilities.5

 Thus, while an auxiliary or replacement 

facility that qualifies for purposes of section 2.55 remains subject to the Commission’s 

NGA jurisdiction, it does not require an individual, facility-specific section 7(c) 

certificate authorization.

4. Facilities that qualify under section 2.55(a) must be “merely auxiliary or 

appurtenant to an authorized or proposed pipeline transmission system” and installed 

“only for the purpose of obtaining more efficient or more economical operation of the 

authorized or proposed transmission facilities,” such as “[v]alves; drips; pig 

launchers/receivers; yard and station piping; cathodic protection equipment; gas cleaning, 

cooling and dehydration equipment; residual refining equipment; water pumping, 

treatment and cooling equipment; electrical and communication equipment; and 

buildings.”6

 A company must provide the Commission with at least 30 days prior notice 

 5 18 CFR 2.55 (2014).

6 Id. 2.55(a)(1). But for the inclusion of pig launchers/receivers in 1999, this list 

has remained unaltered since section 2.55 was put in place in 1949. Note that if a 

pipeline company wants to install any facilities specifically named in section 2.55(a)(1), 

but will not be installing them only for the purpose of obtaining more efficient or more 

economical operation of existing or proposed interstate transmission facilities, then the

company cannot rely on section 2.55(a). See Algonquin Gas Transmission Company, 

57 FERC ¶ 61,052 (1991); West Texas Gas, Inc., 62 FERC ¶ 61,039 (1993); and Natural 

Gas Pipeline Company of America, 114 FERC ¶ 61,061, at n.4 (2006).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 4 -

if it plans to rely on section 2.55 to construct auxiliary facilities in conjunction with: 

(1) a project for which case-specific certificate authority has already been received but 

which is not yet in service; (2) a proposed project for which a case-specific certificate 

application is pending; or (3) facilities that will be constructed subject to the prior notice 

provisions of the Part 157, Subpart F blanket certificate regulations. 

5. Section 2.55(b) permits companies to replace facilities that are or will soon be 

physically deteriorated or obsolete, so long as doing so will not result in a reduction or 

abandonment of service and the replacement facilities will have a substantially equivalent 

designed delivery capacity.7

 All replacement facilities constructed under section 2.55(b) 

must be located within the existing facilities’ previously authorized right-of-way or on 

the same site as the facilities being replaced and must be constructed using the same 

temporary work spaces used to construct the existing facilities.8

 Section 2.55(b) 

replacement projects can go forward without case-specific or blanket certificate 

 7 18 CFR 2.55(b) (2014).

8 Id. 2.55(b)(ii).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 5 -

authorization. However, companies must provide the Commission with 30 days prior 

notice before undertaking more expensive replacement projects.9

6. On April 2, 2012, INGAA filed a petition requesting that the Commission clarify 

that installations of auxiliary facilities under section 2.55(a) are not restricted to the 

rights-of-way and temporary work spaces used to construct the existing facilities that will 

be augmented by the auxiliary facilities.10 INGAA stated that it was seeking such 

clarification because Commission staff has stated in discussions with pipeline 

representatives and in industry meetings that companies undertaking section 2.55(a) 

auxiliary installations to augment existing facilities that are already in service must stay 

within the right-of-way or site for the existing facilities and restrict construction activities 

to previously used work spaces. INGAA disagreed with these constraints, arguing that 

section 2.55(a) activities had not been limited in this way in the past, and that 

Commission staff’s position amounted to rulemaking without the opportunity for notice 

 9 The requirement that a company give at least 30 days prior notice to the 

Commission before commencing a replacement project applies if the project will exceed 

the current cost limit for projects automatically authorized under the Part 157 blanket 

certificate regulations. However, unlike the blanket certificate regulations, section 2.55 

places no cost limits on auxiliary installations or replacement projects that qualify under 

that section. 

10 On May 2, 2012, MidAmerican Energy Pipeline Group (which includes Kern 

River Gas Transmission Company and Northern Natural Gas Company) filed a motion to 

intervene and comments in support of INGAA’s petition.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 6 -

and comment, contrary to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).11 

Pursuant to section 385.207(a)(4) of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, 

INGAA requested that the Commission confirm INGAA’s view that the siting and work 

space constraints stated by staff do not apply to section 2.55(a) auxiliary installations. 

7. On December 20, 2012, the Commission issued a NOPR proposing to revise 

section 2.55(a) to clarify that, as with section 2.55(b), all projects must take place within 

a company’s authorized right-of-way or facility site and use only previously approved 

work spaces. In addition, the NOPR proposed to add a 10-day landowner notification 

requirement for section 2.55 auxiliary and replacement facilities and for section 380.15 

maintenance activities.12

8. On November 22, 2013, the Commission issued the Final Rule to revise its 

regulations to clarify that all section 2.55(a) auxiliary installations added to existing or 

proposed interstate transmission facilities must be located within the authorized right-ofway or site for the existing or proposed facilities and use only the same temporary work 

space used to construct the existing or proposed facilities. In addition, the Final Rule 

 11 5 U.S.C. 553 (2012).

12 Revisions to Auxiliary Installations, Replacement Facilities, and Siting and 

Maintenance Regulations, NOPR, 78 FR 679, at 683 (Jan. 4, 2013), FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 32,696 (2012) (cross-referenced at 141 FERC ¶ 61,228 (2012)). While section 380.15 

covers siting, construction, and maintenance, our existing regulations already have 

notification requirements in place applicable to siting and construction; consequently, the 

additional prior notice requirement described in the new section 380.15(c) will apply 

exclusively to maintenance activities. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 7 -

adopted regulations to provide a landowner with notice at least five days prior to 

commencing an auxiliary or replacement project under section 2.55 or a maintenance 

activity under section 380.15 that causes a ground disturbance on the landowner’s 

property.

9. On December 23, 2013, INGAA and National Fuel each filed a request for 

rehearing of the Final Rule’s determination that all auxiliary installations added to 

existing or proposed interstate transmission facilities must be located within the 

authorized right-of-way or site for the existing or proposed facilities and use only the 

same temporary work space used to construct the existing or proposed facilities. 

10. In regard to the Final Rule’s landowner notification requirements, INGAA and 

National Fuel request that the Commission clarify that: (1) the landowner notification 

requirements may be waived with the landowner’s consent; (2) the provision that enables 

companies to waive the landowner notification requirements for “activities required to 

respond to an emergency” includes activities done for safety, U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT) compliance, or environmental or unplanned maintenance reasons; 

(3) the landowner notification requirement does not apply when a pipeline company is 

required on short notice to mark its facilities on a landowner’s property because the 

landowner or a third party will be digging near the pipeline company’s facilities; and 

(4) the landowner notification does not apply to landowners whose property is crossed

en route to a proposed ground-disturbing maintenance activity, or to areas located 

entirely within the fence line of an existing, above-ground facility site.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 8 -

II. Discussion

A. Section 2.55(a) Auxiliary Facilities 

11. The Final Rule revised the Commission’s regulations to clarify that all 

section 2.55(a) auxiliary installations added to existing or proposed interstate 

transmission facilities must be located within the authorized right-of-way or site for the 

existing or proposed facilities and use only the same temporary work space used to 

construct the existing or proposed facilities.

1. Commission’s Jurisdiction

12. INGAA persists in its contention that section 2.55(a) facilities are beyond the 

Commission’s jurisdiction. This is a fundamental misreading of this regulatory 

provision’s intent and application. 

13. In 1949, Order No. 148, by “amendment of general rules and regulations 

governing the filing of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity 

under section 7(c),”13 added section 2.55 to our regulations to permit the construction and 

operation of auxiliary, replacement, and delivery point facilities without the need to 

obtain individual certificates for such facilities.14 INGAA maintains that “[i]n Order 

 13 Filing of Applications for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity, 

14 FR 681 (February 16, 1949).

14 Section 2.55(c), which describes new delivery points, was subsequently 

removed by Order No. 148-A, 49 FPC 1046 (1973). Delivery points are now included 

among the facilities that may be constructed and operated pursuant to blanket certificate 

authority. See 18 CFR 157.211 (2014).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 9 -

No. 148, the Commission distinguished between jurisdictional facilities necessary for the 

transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce and non-jurisdictional 

installations.”15 The Commission did not. What the Commission did, as explained in the 

NOPR prior to Order No. 148, was “to permit natural-gas companies subject to the 

jurisdiction of the Commission” to add a restricted set of facilities to, and replace parts 

of, an existing system “without further authorization from the Commission ... to avoid 

the filing and consideration of unnecessary applications for certificates.”16 (Emphasis 

added.) Order No. 148 accomplished this by deeming that “[f]or the purposes of 

section 7(c),” i.e., with respect to the section of the NGA which requires that natural gas 

companies obtain prior certificate authorization to construct or acquire jurisdictional 

facilities, “the word ‘facilities’ as used therein shall be interpreted to exclude” auxiliary, 

replacement, and delivery point facilities.17 In other words, to reduce the burden on the 

industry and to aid our own administrative efficiency, the Commission allowed natural 

gas companies already holding section 7 certificate authorization for existing natural gas 

facilities to make limited modifications to those facilities without the need to first obtain 

separate, additional, case-specific certificate authorization for each modification. In the 

 15 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 22.

16 13 FR 6253-54 (October 23, 1948).

17 14 FR 681.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 10 -

Final Rule, we compared section 2.55 to our later actions to enable companies to act 

without first submitting an individual certificate application, stating:

Section 2.55 is both a precursor and complement to our Part 

157 blanket certificate program. By providing non-casespecific certificate authorization for limited classes of 

facilities, the section 2.55 and blanket certificate regulations 

permit companies to satisfy the requirements of section 7(c) 

without having to apply for individual case-specific 

certificates for each and every modification to their systems.18 

14. Thus, Order No. 148 did not and could not remove jurisdictional facilities from 

our jurisdiction, but carved out a class of facilities in section 2.55 that could be added 

onto, or could replace, parts of a larger certificated system without the need for further 

review because the auxiliary or replacement facilities will be within the same rights-ofway and use the same work spaces that were reviewed by the Commission prior to 

construction of the existing facilities at that location. In describing the facilities 

authorized under section 2.55, Order No. 148 did not make any jurisdictional distinction 

among section 2.55(a) auxiliary installations, section 2.55(b) replacements, and 

section 2.55(c) delivery points, indicating all section 2.55 facilities share the same 

 18 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 16.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 11 -

jurisdictional status. INGAA acknowledges that 2.55 replacement facilities are subject to 

our jurisdiction, stating:

The facilities in question, both those being replaced and those 

doing the replacing once they are in service, are jurisdictional 

under NGA Section 7. The new replacement facilities once in 

service assume the certificated position previously occupied 

by the facilities being replaced. ... The new facilities, just like 

the facilities that they replaced, are required to provide the 

pipeline’s previously certificated jurisdictional service. In 

addition, as replacements of existing facilities, Section 

2.55(b) projects by definition and by their very nature involve 

an existing right of way.19 

15. Section 2.55(a) auxiliary installations, which are limited to facilities that improve 

the operation of a jurisdictional system, have the same jurisdictional status as the 

undisputedly jurisdictional replacements. As stated in the Final Rule: 

All section 2.55 facilities are integrated into a larger interstate 

transmission system and serve no function other than to 

enable that system to perform its jurisdictional functions more 

 19 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 39.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 12 -

efficiently or economically; just as the larger system is 

jurisdictional, the component parts of that system, including 

auxiliary facilities installed pursuant to section 2.55, are 

jurisdictional as well.20 

Accordingly, the facilities identified in section 2.55 are permitted to be put in place 

pursuant to the certificate authorization of the pipeline system that they modify, and are 

consequently as jurisdictional as, and subject to the same constraints imposed upon, the 

system that they modify, including siting and workspace constraints.

16. INGAA argues that because Order No. 603 amended section 2.55(b) to explicitly 

state that replacements must use the same right-of-way and workspaces as the facilities 

being replaced, but did not amend section 2.55(a) to state the same with respect to 

auxiliary facilities, the Commission’s intent was to impose these restrictions on 

replacements alone. INGAA is incorrect in suggesting that it was not until Order No. 603 

that the Commission viewed section 2.55 as limiting all construction activities under that 

section to existing, previously studied and approved rights-of-way. The Commission 

stated in Order No. 603 that “[c]urrent Policy requires that replacement facilities must be 

placed in the existing ROW”; “we are not allowing additional ROW width under 

Section 2.55”; and “we will continue to follow Commission policy and limit the 

 20 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 13 (footnote omitted).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 13 -

pipeline's use of property to construct facilities under Section 2.55 to the existing 

ROW.”21 

17. The discussion in Order No. 603 made clear that the Commission has always 

viewed all activities under section 2.55 as being limited to existing rights-of-way and 

facility sites. The Commission focused on section 2.55(b) in Order No. 603 because it 

was aware that some companies incorrectly viewed that section as providing 

authorization for them to undertake replacement projects using new, not previously 

studied rights-of-way, and thereby in theory, swap out large portions of their systems 

under section 2.55(b) with no limit as to project size and potential impacts.22 At the time, 

the Commission had no intimations of companies similarly relying on section 2.55(a) to 

place auxiliary installations in greenfield areas. Furthermore, the Commission still 

assumed that there was no need for companies to go outside existing rights-of-way to 

 21 Revision of Existing Regulations Under Part 157 and Related Sections of the 

commission’s Regulations Under the natural Gas Act, Order No. 603, 64 FR 26572 at 

26575; FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,073 at 30,784-85 (1999).

22 As discussed in the Final Rule, Order No. 603 was prompted by a company’s 

inappropriate reliance on section 2.55(b) to abandon 91 miles of pipeline and install new, 

larger-diameter pipeline, portions of which were placed outside the right-of-way of the 

abandoned pipeline. See Order No. 603, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,073, at 30,783-84 

(1999), and Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351, at P 17 (2013) (citing Arkla 

Energy Resources Company, 67 FERC ¶ 61,173 (1994) (Arkla), order on reh’g, NorAm 

Gas Transmission Company, 70 FERC ¶ 61,030 (1995) (NorAm)). Arkla was in the 

process of changing its name to NorAm at the time the Commission issued its order 

finding that Arkla's replacement project did not qualify to go forward under 

section 2.55(b). Thus, Arkla sought rehearing under its new name, NorAm.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 14 -

install section 2.55(a) facilities that are “merely auxiliary or appurtenant” to and “only for 

the purpose” of enhancing the operation of a pipeline’s other authorized facilities. It has 

been only relatively recently that Commission staff’s discussions with industry 

representatives and INGAA’s petition have made it clear that an explicit statement of 

siting limitations is also needed in section 2.55(a) to clarify that auxiliary installations 

also must stay within previously authorized boundaries.

18. Specifically, over the last several years, concerns about potential noncompliance 

with siting restrictions for auxiliary installations under section 2.55 have been conveyed 

by industry representatives and landowners to Commission staff. Although the concerns 

presented have not resulted in an enforcement action, staff has explained the spatial 

limitations on construction activities under section 2.55(a) in response to inquiries by 

industry representatives and landowners and in presentations and conversations at public 

forums. In part, it was these statements by staff that motivated INGAA to submit its 

petition.

19. In addressing space limitations on auxiliary installations under section 2.55(a) in 

this rulemaking proceeding, we have responded as we did in Order No. 603 when we 

became aware that companies were improperly relying on section 2.55(b) to construct 

replacement facilities in new rights-of-way. In this proceeding, we confirmed the 

position we expressed in Order No. 603 that construction activities under section 2.55 are 

restricted to projects confined to the footprint of existing facilities or the right-of-way of 

other facilities proposed in a case-specific certificate application or under the prior notice 

provisions of the blanket certificate regulations, and revised our regulations to codify this 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 15 -

clarification. Again, the fact that we did not take the opportunity in Order No. 603 to 

insert explanatory language in section 2.55(a) shows only that the focus of the 

Commission’s concern in 1999 was to address the identified issue of replacement 

facilities being installed outside existing rights-of-way, and was not, as INGAA contends, 

indicative of a deliberate intent by the Commission to apply spatial limitations to 

replacement projects but not to auxiliary projects. 

20. INGAA relies on National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation v. FERC, 468 F.3d 831 

(D.C. Cir. 2006) (National Fuel) to support its argument. In National Fuel, the D.C. 

Circuit remanded back to the Commission a final rule that extended the Commission’s

Standards of Conduct regulations, which already applied to pipeline companies’ 

relationships with their marketing affiliates, to also apply to a pipeline company’s

relationships with their non-marketing affiliates (e.g., affiliated producers, gatherers, and 

processors). The court found no record evidence of a real problem, and explained that if 

the Commission chose on remand to rely solely on a theoretical threat, it would need to 

explain how the potential danger of improper communications between pipelines and 

entities other than their marketing affiliates justified the regulatory restrictions on their

interactions and why the normal complaint process under NGA section 5 would not 

suffice.23 

 23 National Fuel, 468 F.3d at 845.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 16 -

21. Our action here is not analogous to National Fuel, where the Commission sought 

to extend regulatory restrictions to new entities without documentation of abuse. Here, 

we are not expanding our regulatory reach based on potential industry activities; instead, 

we are simply clarifying the existing bounds of the regulatory authority provided by 

section 2.55(a). Further, whereas the section 5 complaint process can adequately address 

the economic consequences of unfair competitive practices after the fact, irreparable and 

unnecessary environmental damage can result from companies’ relying on section 2.55 of 

the regulations to construct new facilities in areas that the Commission has not had an 

opportunity to environmentally review.

22. INGAA maintains that Order No. 603 describes auxiliary facilities as exempt 

from the Commission’s jurisdiction. In support of its position, INGAA points to CNG 

Transmission Corp.,

24 in which the Commission stated that Order No. 603 “amends 

Section 2.55(a) to specifically identify pig launchers as non-jurisdictional auxiliary 

equipment.”

23. Order No. 603 admittedly refers to auxiliary facilities in a manner that might be 

misconstrued as deeming auxiliary facilities to be nonjurisdictional. However, Order 

No. 603’s discussion of auxiliary facilities opens with the statement that “Section 2.55 

defines facilities that are excluded from the requirements of section 7(c) of the NGA and 

 24 87 FERC ¶ 61,324, at 62,259, n.7, reh’g denied, 89 FERC ¶ 61,047 (1999).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 17 -

may, therefore, be constructed without additional certificate authority.”25 No additional 

certificate authority is needed because section 2.55 can be relied upon to construct 

qualifying auxiliary and replacement facilities under the umbrella of the company’s 

certificate authority for the facilities being augmented or replaced. Thus, the ‘exemption’ 

provided by section 2.55 is not an exemption from NGA jurisdiction, but an exemption 

from the need to apply for additional case-specific certificate authorization or rely on 

blanket authorization under NGA section 7 for qualifying activities. The Commission’s 

failure to carefully choose its words in contexts where the jurisdictional status of pig 

launchers and other auxiliary facilities was not being challenged does not change the fact 

that all of the facilities addressed by section 2.55 are jurisdictional facilities.

24. INGAA accepts that replacement facilities “assume the certificated position 

previously occupied by the facilities being replaced,” but does not believe auxiliary 

facilities are subject to any certificate authority, and consequently characterizes 

section 2.55(a) and section 2.55(b) as representing “intrinsically different concepts.”26 

We find no intrinsic difference. The facilities described under section 2.55 serve to 

enhance the operation or update the facilities of an existing system. Section 2.55(a) 

auxiliary facilities must serve the purpose of making a system function more efficiently 

or economically, and section 2.55(b) replacements serve to improve reliability and safety. 

 25 Order No. 603, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,073 at 30,781 (emphasis added). 

26 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 39.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 18 -

Thus, conceptually, section 2.55 auxiliary facilities and replacement facilities both serve 

the same purpose: they constitute relatively modest modifications to a system that do not 

alter the physical parameters of or services provided by the system. 

25. INGAA maintains that in stating that section 2.55(a) auxiliary facilities are 

jurisdictional, the “Commission erred by not considering reasonable alternatives to its 

chosen policy and by not giving a reasoned explanation for its rejection of such 

alternatives.”27 INGAA is correct that when embarking on a new regulatory initiative, 

we consider various alternatives before we act, and then provide a reasoned explanation 

for our choice of action. Here, however, in responding to INGAA’s petition requesting 

confirmation of its claim that auxiliary facilities are nonjurisdictional, we were not faced 

with a choice among policy alternatives; instead, we acted to correct a misunderstanding 

of the status of section 2.55 facilities by confirming that all such facilities are subject to 

the Commission’s jurisdiction under section 7 of the NGA. Thus, our response did not 

contemplate potential policy choices, but clarified the existing policy embodied in 

section 2.55 that provides for the installation of auxiliary and replacement facilities 

described in that section under the certificate authority that authorized the facilities being 

enhanced or replaced. This rulemaking proceeding may have served to remind some

companies of the existing spatial limitations on the placement of auxiliary and 

 27 Id. at 13-14.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 19 -

replacement facilities under section 2.55, but has not added any new additional regulatory 

restrictions on where facilities may be constructed under section 2.55.28

2. Section 2.55 Siting and Construction Limitations

26. On rehearing, INGAA reiterates its argument that Commission staff has been 

aware companies have been relying on section 2.55 to install auxiliary facilities outside 

existing rights-of-way in some instances, and that this claimed awareness on staff’s part 

supports INGAA’s position that our Final Rule’s regulatory revisions to clarify the rightof-way and workplace constraints on auxiliary installations constitutes a “change [to] 

what had been the plain and universal understanding of that provision for approximately 

60 years.”29 In support, INGAA cites two instances in which Commission staff issued a 

letter order that appears to acquiesce to a company’s plans to rely on section 2.55 to 

install auxiliary facilities outside an established right-of-way.30 INGAA also claims that 

based on the cited letter orders issued under delegated authority, members of the 

Commission’s staff were aware, when the Commission issued Order Nos. 603 and 603-A 

 28 We have made policy changes to landowner notification requirements in this 

proceeding; however, these notification changes were made after considering alternatives 

and providing an explanation for the changes.

29 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 4. 

30 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 32. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 20 -

in 1999, that pipelines were making auxiliary installations outside existing rights-of-way 

and workspaces.31

27. In the situation underlying the first staff letter, a company sought case-specific 

certificate authorization to add a slug catcher (a facility to remove liquids from a gas 

stream) to an existing pipeline system.32 Staff determined no additional certificate 

authority was needed because the proposed slug catcher “is an auxiliary installation that 

would increase the efficiency and enhance the flexibility of operation with no apparent 

change in the capacity of the existing Terrebonne System.”33 We reiterate our 

observation from the Final Rule that although the application for certificate authorization 

indicated that a portion of the proposed slug catcher would be located outside the existing 

right-of-way, there is “no indication that the location of the new facilities was taken into 

account in the one-page, two-paragraph staff letter,” and staff’s failure to recognize that 

some of the proposed facilities would be outside of the existing right-of-way appears to 

have been “an oversight that led to a wrong result, since locating any of the planned new 

 31 Id. at 11 and 43.

32 Trunkline Gas Company, Docket No. CP84-394-000, letter order signed by the 

Director of the Commission’s Office of Pipeline Regulation, dated May 25, 1984; FERC 

eLibrary Accession No. 19840601-0118.

33 Id.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 21 -

auxiliary facilities outside the existing right-of-way should have disqualified the project 

for purposes of section 2.55(a).”34 

28. The second instance concerns staff’s response to a proposal to install cathodic 

protection equipment. In a December 1997 letter, staff responded to a company’s 

description of a new project to add cathodic protection to an existing pipeline by 

reminding the company that because part of the project would be in a new right-of-way, 

the company could not rely on section 2.55(a), but would have to file a case-specific 

section 7 certificate application.35 In an April 1998 letter, staff responded to the same 

company’s description of what appears to be the same project, and finds it may proceed 

under section 2.55(a).36 As discussed in the Final Rule, these letters are not necessarily 

in conflict, because the company may have altered its proposed project in response to the 

first letter so as to comply with the right-of-way restriction. If not, then as we stated in 

the NOPR and Final Rule, the April 1998 letter did not reflect Commission policy 

correctly.37

 34 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 36.

35 Letter signed by the Director of the Commission’s Office of Pipeline 

Regulations, dated December 16, 1997; FERC eLibrary Accession No. 19971223-0120.

36 Letter signed by the Director of the Commission’s Office of Pipeline 

Regulation, dated April 3, 1998; FERC eLibrary Accession No. 19980408-0242.

37 NOPR, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 32,696 at P 11, n.18 and Order No. 790, FERC 

Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 35.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 22 -

29. INGAA finds our review of these letter orders to be “cursory and unconvincing,” 

and insists “that the existence of these delegated orders entirely undermines the 

Commission’s foundation for its Final Rule,”38 which INGAA characterizes as a 

disingenuous claim that the Commission has not been aware that companies have been 

relying on section 2.55 to install auxiliary facilities outside existing rights-of-way. This 

characterization is incorrect and is also inconsistent with INGAA’s stated motive for 

submitting its petition, which was that members of the Commission’s staff were taking 

the position in discussions with industry representatives that section 2.55(a) only applies 

to auxiliary facilities installed in existing rights-of-way using previously approved work 

spaces.39 Further, while INGAA’s petition emphasized that some companies have relied 

in good faith on the misunderstanding that section 2.55(a) allows auxiliary facilities to be 

installed in new areas, INGAA’s petition did not identify and we are not aware of any 

specific instances where companies have disregarded the guidance offered by 

Commission staff. 

30. In any event, our review of the two cited letter orders was sufficient to establish 

that if staff concluded in those situations that the companies could rely on section 2.55(a) 

 38 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 32. INGAA also claims that based on the 

cited letter orders issued under delegated authority, members of the Commission’s staff 

were aware, when the Commission issued Order Nos. 603 and 603-A in 1999, that 

companies were making auxiliary installations outside existing rights-of-way and 

workspaces. Id. at 11 and 43.

39 INGAA’s April 2, 2012 Petition at 1. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 23 -

to build auxiliary facilities outside the existing rights-of-way, then those particular staff 

interpretations were in error. While staff makes every effort to accurately reflect the 

Commission’s practice, procedures, policy, and regulatory requirements, staff’s 

statements of opinion and regulatory interpretations, as INGAA and the industry it 

represents are well aware, are not binding on the Commission. Further, neither of the 

two unpublished letter orders cited by INGAA explicitly articulates a policy of allowing 

section 2.55(a) facilities outside an established project boundary or has any other 

precedential value, and INGAA provides no other evidence to support what it claims is 

the “plain and universal understanding of [section 2.55(a)].”40 We are unaware of any 

other staff opinions or issuances under delegated authority, much less any determinations 

by the Commission itself, that provide support for INGAA’s assertions that our Final 

Rule announced a sharp departure from prior Commission policy and imposed, rather 

than clarified, the spatial constraints on section 2.55(a) facilities. 

31. In clarifying the spatial constraint for section 2.55 facilities, we commented in 

the Final Rule that absent such a constraint, companies could traverse and disturb 

unexamined areas. Specifically, we explained that our goal is to ensure that the 

authorization provided by section 2.55 does not inadvertently work to deprive the 

Commission of the opportunity to conduct an environmental review and impose 

appropriate mitigation measures in any situation where a company’s construction 

 40 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 4.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 24 -

activities may have adverse environmental impacts. Thus, the regulations provide that 

even when all planned auxiliary facilities can be located entirely within an existing rightof-way, if a company plans to construct the auxiliary facilities in conjunction with other 

construction activities proposed in a case-specific certificate application or under the 

blanket certificate regulations’ prior notice provisions, the company may not undertake 

the section 2.55 construction until the auxiliary facilities have been identified and 

considered by the Commission in its environmental review in the proceeding on the other 

proposed facilities and the other facilities have been authorized.41 

32. INGAA replies that independent of the Commission’s requirements, companies 

must comply with environmental laws imposed by other federal and state authorities, and 

argues that in the past these other environmental laws have provided satisfactory 

environmental oversight of companies’ auxiliary installation projects outside existing 

rights-of-way.

42 INGAA asserts, therefore, that there is no reason for the Commission to 

conduct NEPA reviews before companies undertake auxiliary installations involving 

construction activities that will disturb areas not previously studied by the Commission. 

33. We have NEPA responsibilities with respect to construction activities that 

companies undertake based on Commission-granted authorization, and we cannot waive 

 41 18 CFR 2.55(a)(2)(ii) and (iii) (2014). See Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. 

¶ 31,351 at P 50.

42 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 34.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 25 -

these responsibilities solely because other agencies may have complementary or 

overlapping NEPA responsibilities of their own. INGAA objects to what it describes as 

the Commission’s effort to limit the location of “auxiliary installations through 

arguments based on a different pipeline activity, the replacement of facilities,” and asserts 

that replacement and auxiliary “activities are materially different and historically have 

been treated differently by the Commission.”43 However, while section 2.55(b) 

replacement projects are generally of a larger scale than section 2.55(a) auxiliary 

installations and thus are more likely to involve significant ground disturbance, many 

activities that can qualify for construction under section 2.55(a), for example, installation 

of pig launchers/receivers and cathodic protection equipment, can also involve significant 

ground disturbance, as well as visual, noise, and other impacts. Thus, if a company will 

need to use new right-of-way or other areas that have not been authorized by the 

Commission to construct auxiliary facilities, the company cannot proceed with the 

construction under section 2.55. Rather, the company must proceed under the Part 157 

blanket certificate regulations or, if the project will not qualify under the blanket 

certificate regulations, then file an application for case-specific certificate authorization. 

By way of comparison, whereas section 2.55 does not include environmental conditions 

because it does not provide any authorization for construction activities outside areas that 

have been or will be subject to the Commission’s environmental review, the blanket 

 43 Id. at 8.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 26 -

certificate regulations, which do contemplate such activities, include environmental 

conditions in section 157.206(b) requiring pipeline companies to comply, prior to 

commencing construction, with numerous environmental laws enforced by other agencies 

to ensure that sensitive environmental areas will not be adversely impacted by activities, 

including activities under the automatic provisions, that will involve ground disturbance 

or changes to operational air and noise emissions.44 Section 2.55(a) does not include 

such specific requirements because we did not contemplate that auxiliary facilities would

be located outside of areas that either have been or will be subject to the Commission’s 

environmental study and any appropriate environmental mitigation measures.

34. Section 2.55 and blanket certificate authority embody two different types of 

certificate authorization. The certificate authority for auxiliary installations under 

section 2.55(a), which does not include any specific environmental conditions, derives 

from either (1) the certificate for the existing facilities to be augmented, and thus the 

auxiliary facilities can only use areas previously authorized by the Commission for the 

construction of the existing facilities, or (2) the certificate authority being sought by the 

 44 Sections 157.206(b)(2)(i) – (xii) require that companies planning to undertake 

construction activities under Part 157 blanket certificate authority obtain, prior to 

commencing construction, any necessary permits or approvals from and comply with 

conditions imposed by the agencies charged with specific NEPA responsibilities under 

the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Archeological 

and Historic Preservation Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Endangered Species Act, 

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, National Wilderness Act, National Parks and Recreation 

Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and executive 

orders requiring evaluation of the potential effects of actions on floodplains and wetlands.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 27 -

company for other new facilities, in which case both the new facilities and the planned 

auxiliary facilities will be subject to an environmental review by the Commission. While 

blanket certificate authority can be relied upon to obtain new right-of-way and to use 

previously undisturbed areas, any blanket certificate construction that would involve 

ground disturbance or changes to operational air and noise emissions will be subject, as 

discussed above, to section 157.206(b)’s environmental conditions. In addition, we note 

that a company’s prior notice blanket certificate activities, even those that will be 

confined entirely to an existing right-of-way previously studied and authorized by the 

Commission, can be protested by staff based on environmental concerns, thus subjecting 

the proposal to additional review.45 

35. In practice, we have highlighted the difference in section 2.55 and blanket 

certificate activities by rejecting companies’ reliance on section 2.55(a) to install facilities 

 45 See, e.g., Northwest Pipeline Corporation, 68 FERC ¶ 61,336, at 62,345-46 

(1994) (Commission staff protested a construction proposal filed under the prior notice 

provisions, withdrawing the protest after its environmental concerns were addressed);

Williams Natural Gas Company, 66 FERC ¶ 62,114 (1994) (following staff’s protest to 

Williams’ prior notice filing proposing to abandon 19 miles pipeline by removal, the 

Commission’s Director of the Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation authorized the 

activity subject to Williams’ implementation of certain mitigation measures and 

environmental conditions); and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, 64 FERC 

¶ 62,041 (1993) (Commission staff protested Natural’s prior notice filing proposing to 

abandon delivery taps, delaying authorization of the abandonment until Natural received

a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which included conditions 

addressing the disposal of material potentially contaminated with polychlorinated 

biphenyls).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 28 -

that do not meet the siting or function requirements, thereby requiring the companies to 

rely on blanket authorization or case-specific certification for such facilities.46

36. In seeking to bolster their position, commenters on the NOPR posited extreme 

situations, arguing for example, that since the Commission included “buildings” as an 

example of a 2.55(a) facility, and a new corporate headquarters cannot be constructed 

entirely within an existing pipeline right-of-way, the Commission could not have 

intended 2.55(a) facilities to be confined to existing rights-of-way. The Commission 

responded to this in the Final Rule by noting that a corporate headquarters is not a natural 

gas facility; thus, such construction does not require any certificate authorization under 

the NGA.47 On rehearing, INGAA turns its focus to communication towers, arguing that 

since they, like office buildings, may be located remotely from the pipeline; we should 

find that they, too, are exempt from Commission jurisdiction. We do not agree.

37. A communication tower constructed by an interstate pipeline company for the 

purpose of supporting equipment used to monitor (and possibly control) the pipeline 

system’s operation is a natural gas facility subject to our jurisdiction under the NGA. If 

the tower (or a building, or any facility or equipment which serves exclusively to make a 

pipeline’s operations more efficient or economical) can be installed within an existing (or 

 46 See, e.g., Algonquin Gas Transmission Company, 57 FERC ¶ 61,052 (1991);

West Texas Gas, Inc., 62 FERC ¶ 61,039 (1993); and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of 

America, 114 FERC ¶ 61,061 (2006).

47 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 22 and n.39.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 29 -

proposed) authorized area, the company can proceed under section 2.55(a). However, if 

it will be located outside an authorized area, then that facility must be constructed under 

either blanket or case-specific certificate authority. Although some of the types of 

facilities named in section 2.55(a) have evolved significantly since 1949, the function of 

the named facilities remains the same: they are incidental additions to an interstate 

transmission system, dependent upon and integrated into that larger system. Further, 

section 2.55(a) describes qualifying facilities as “[i]nstallations ... which are merely 

auxiliary or appurtenant to an authorized or proposed transmission pipeline system,” 

indicating that section 2.55(a) is only intended to apply to facilities that will be attached 

to or adjacent to the components of the system they support. When a company is able to 

construct facilities meeting this description in an area that has been or will be reviewed 

for environmental purposes by the Commission, then the company may proceed with 

such construction under section 2.55(a). However, it may be the case in many instances 

that a company will want or need to locate some of the auxiliary facilities specifically 

listed in section 2.55(a) – in particular, communication, pig launching/receiving, and 

cathodic protection equipment – in locations requiring the use of additional rights-ofway, larger easements, or temporary work spaces that have not been included previously 

in an environmental review performed by the Commission. In those situations, the 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 30 -

companies will need to proceed under an alternative form of authorization (i.e., under a 

blanket or case-specific certificate).48 

38. National Fuel asks whether “improvements such as buildings, roads, and parking 

lots for central offices, field and other offices, warehouses, [and] equipment yards” can 

qualify under section 2.55(a).49 We clarify they can, provided they meet section 2.55’s 

location and function requirements. We note the Final Rule revised the section 157.202 

definition of “eligible facility” to specify that auxiliary installations that will not qualify 

under section 2.55(a) because they will not satisfy that section’s location or work space 

constraints may qualify for authorization under a company’s blanket certificate. 

Companies will need to seek case-specific authorization for auxiliary facilities that are 

also not eligible for blanket authorization (e.g., facilities that would exceed the cost limits 

specified in section 157.208(d)).

39. Finally, we note that because section 2.55 facilities are constructed and operated 

under the certificate authorization for the facilities that they augment or replace, prior 

authorization under NGA section 7(b) is necessary before a pipeline company can 

abandon auxiliary and replacement facilities constructed under section 2.55. INGAA 

 48 Our discussion here should provide adequate clarification for INGAA, which 

professes to be puzzled by our statement in the Final Rule that although “types of 

facilities are specifically listed in section 2.55(a) [this] does not mean that companies can 

necessarily rely in all instances on section 2.55(a) to install them.” Order No. 790, FERC 

Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 25. 

49 National Fuel’s Request for Rehearing at 6.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 31 -

complains that we neglected to address the “burden of seeking such abandonment 

authority.”50 The requirement for prior authorization under section 7(b) to abandon 

certificated facilities is statutory and cannot be waived by the Commission. Further, 

while section 157.202(b)(3) of the blanket certificate regulations states that for purposes 

of those regulations “‘Facility’ does not include the items described in section 2.55,” we 

explained in the Final Rule that section 157.202(b)(3) only prevents companies from 

relying on their Part 157 blanket certificates to undertake activities, i.e., the construction 

and operation of qualifying auxiliary and replacement facilities, that qualify under

section 2.55.51 We clarify here that section 157.202(b)(3) of the blanket certificate 

regulations does not preclude a pipeline company from relying on its Part 157 blanket 

certificate and the abandonment authority provided by section 157.216 to abandon 

facilities constructed under section 2.55, provided the abandonment activity will meet the 

applicable environmental conditions and cost limits (i.e., the facilities to be abandoned 

could be constructed under the blanket certificate regulations’ current cost limits, 

regardless of what the original construction costs may have been). We expect that 

activities to abandon most auxiliary facilities and many replacement facilities constructed 

under section 2.55 can satisfy these conditions, and thus enable companies to go forward 

with abandonments under section 157.216 of the blanket certificate regulations.

 50 See INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 51.

51 See Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 46.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 32 -

3. INGAA’s Response to the NOPR

40. INGAA objects to our treating its January 22, 2013 submission in response to the 

NOPR as a comment on the NOPR rather than as a request for rehearing of the 

underlying rejection of INGAA’s position regarding the scope of authority provided by 

section 2.55(a). 

41. As described in the Final Rule and above, the NOPR was issued in response to 

INGAA’s petition requesting that we “affirm” that installations of auxiliary facilities 

under section 2.55(a) are not restricted to the rights-of-way and temporary work spaces 

used to construct the existing facilities that will be augmented by the auxiliary facilities. 

We declined to do so, explaining in the NOPR that the Commission has never viewed 

section 2.55(a) as providing any authorization for pipeline companies to construct 

auxiliary facilities outside areas subject to environmental review and authorization by the 

Commission. On January 22, 2013, INGAA file a pleading styled “Request for 

Rehearing.” However, while the Commission’s Office of the Secretary issued a tolling 

order (Order Granting Rehearing for Further Consideration) on February 20, 2013, such 

an order is not dispositive of the procedural posture of the underlying pleading (i.e., 

issuance of a tolling order in response to a submission styled as a request for rehearing 

does not constitute a finding by the Commission that rehearing indeed lies on the issues 

raised in the filing). 

42. In this instance, as noted in the Final Rule, the Commission ultimately determined 

to treat the January 22, 2013 pleading as comments on the NOPR, explaining that the 

NOPR’s clarification of the existing scope of the authority bestowed by section 2.55(a) 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 33 -

did not “effect any change [in our regulations]; rather, it articulated existing, longstanding constraints and obligations with respect to auxiliary installations. Because the 

NOPR does not constitute an instant Final Rule [as alleged by INGAA], we find no cause 

to consider requests for rehearing in response to the NOPR.”52 The Commission’s 

procedural choice to issue a NOPR in response to INGAA’s petition and to treat its 

January 22, 2013 submission as comments rather than as a rehearing request did not 

deprive INGAA of any due process. Issuance of the NOPR provided INGAA the 

opportunity to present arguments that the Commission should amend section 2.55(a) to 

expand the scope of construction that can be done under that section. We also considered 

and responded to the concerns and arguments presented in INGAA’s January 22, 2013 

filing in the Final Rule. Further, our issuance of the NOPR provided the notice and 

comment forum which INGAA urged was required before more rigorous enforcement of 

the section 2.55(a) locational restrictions. As explained in the Final Rule, we do not 

intend to look back in order to determine whether installation of auxiliary facilities prior 

to the effective date of the Final Rule conform to section 2.55(a) siting limitations or 

pursue any enforcement action with respect to any installations prior to the effective date 

of the Final Rule that do not conform to section 2.55(a) siting limitations, unless it comes 

to our attention that remedial environmental measures need to be taken.53 

 52 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at n.19.

53 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 50. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 34 -

4. Compliance with Executive Orders

43. INGAA repeats its claim that our action is inconsistent with Executive Orders 

directing agencies to avoid unduly burdensome regulations.54 The impetus behind and 

function of section 2.55 is to reduce regulatory burdens by providing a means for 

companies to install facilities without the need to obtain blanket or case-specific 

certificate authorization and our clarification of its operation imposes no new burden. 

We acknowledged that some additional burden will be associated with new landowner 

notification requirements adopted by the Final Rule, but we found that the anticipated 

benefits justify this new regulation. Further, as discussed below, in response to 

comments on the landowner notification requirement adopted by the Final Rule, we 

significantly reduce the number of instances in which companies will be required to 

contact landowners before entering upon their properties. These revisions will 

substantially reduce the burden associated with providing prior notification. Finally, as 

previously observed, the Commission has directed staff to perform an internal assessment 

of the effectiveness of our regulations, as we are continually seeking to streamline our 

regulations in order to foster competitive markets, facilitate enhanced competition, and 

avoid imposing undue burdens on regulated entities or unnecessary costs on those entities 

or their customers.55 

 54 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 41. 

55 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 44.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 35 -

B. Landowner Notification

44. The Final Rule adopted regulations requiring companies to notify landowners 

prior to initiating auxiliary and replacement projects or maintenance activities to give 

landowners adequate notice (to the extent practicable) of a company entering onto their 

property in order to avoid potential conflict between landowners and gas companies. 

Specifically, the Final Rule added a new section 2.55(c) and revised existing 

section 380.15(c) to require a natural gas company to make a good faith effort to notify 

landowners at least five days in advance of commencing an auxiliary or replacement 

project or of any maintenance that will cause ground disturbance. The notice must 

include: (1) a brief description of the activity to be conducted or facilities to be added or 

replaced and the expected effects on landowners; (2) the name and phone number of a

company representative who is knowledgeable about the project; and (3) a description of 

the Commission’s Dispute Resolution Division Helpline and its phone number, as 

explained in section 1b.21(g) of the Commission’s regulations. 

1. Waiver of Five-Day Prior Notice

45. INGAA requests we clarify that so long as a company provides landowners with at 

least five days advance notice, landowners can waive all or part of the post-notice waiting 

period. INGAA states that allowance for the waiver would be similar to the landowner 

notice waiver provision under the blanket certificate regulations, which allows a company 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 36 -

that has given a landowner notice of a project to proceed before the end of the required 

post-notice waiting period, provided the landowner gives written approval to do so.56 

46. We agree that landowners, once notified, should be allowed to waive any portion 

of the post-notice waiting period by giving written approval. Accordingly, we will 

modify sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) to permit landowners to waive the post-notice 

waiting period. 

2. Emergency Exemption to Notice Requirement

47. The Final Rule provided that “[f]or activities required to respond to an emergency, 

the five-day prior notice period does not apply” under sections 2.55 and 380.15,

57

reasoning that companies should not hesitate to undertake immediate action in an 

emergency situation. However, that any events that do not necessitate immediate access 

to system facilities would still be subject to a minimum five-day prior notice.58 

48. INGAA and National Fuel request that we clarify the scope of the emergency 

exemption provided by sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) by revising those sections to be 

consistent with the language in section 157.203(d)(3) of the blanket certificate 

 56 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 15 (citing 18 CFR 157.203(d)(1) (2014)). 

Section 157.203 of the Commission’s regulations requires companies to give landowners 

notice at least 45 days prior to commencing construction under its automatic blanket 

certificate authority. A landowner may waive the 45-day prior notice requirement in 

writing so long as notice has been provided. 

57 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 63.

58 Id.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 37 -

regulations.59 Specifically, section 157.203(d)(3) states that the requirement for prior 

notification to landowners does not apply when a company needs to initiate construction 

activities under section 2.55 or maintenance activities under section 380.15 done for 

safety, DOT compliance, or environmental or unplanned maintenance reasons that are not 

foreseen and that require immediate attention by the company.60 We will revise 

sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) as requested. However, the exemption from the 

requirement for prior notice to landowners is only intended to apply in unforeseen 

situations where a company needs to take immediate action to correct a sudden 

incompatibility with DOT safety requirements or to avoid imminent danger or harm to 

life, property, or the environment. Therefore, while many routine and scheduled 

activities are safety-related or necessary to maintain or come into compliance with DOT 

regulations, such routine, foreseeable, or scheduled activities are not emergencies, and 

are not exempt from the requirement for prior notice to landowners.

49. National Fuel asserts that if an emergency activity is exempt from the prior 

landowner notification requirements under section 2.55(c) or section 380.15(c), there 

should be no need for a pipeline to rely on and comply with the provisions of Part 284, 

 59 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 16 and National Fuel’s Request for

Rehearing at 3.

60 18 CFR 157.203(d)(3) (2014).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 38 -

Subpart I, of the Commission’s regulations.61 We agree and clarify that when companies 

seek to act under section 2.55 or section 380.15(c), and need to act promptly to respond 

to an emergency, and are thus unable to provide landowners with at least five days 

advance notice, then the emergency nature of the action functions as a waiver of the prior 

notice requirement. Thus, provided that with the exception of prior notice, an emergency 

response action meets all other section 2.55 or section 380.15(c) requirements, a 

company may proceed under section 2.55 or section 380.15(c). However, any emergency 

response action that would not qualify under section 2.55 or section 380.15(c) (e.g., 

construction which would take place outside previously approved areas), would require a 

company to proceed under other emergency authority, such as Part 284, Subpart I. 

3. Affected Landowners

50. The Final Rule stated that prior notification be provided to “affected landowners,” 

described in sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c), as property owners that will be “directly 

affected (i.e., crossed or used), by the proposed activity, including all rights-of-way, 

facility sites (including compressor stations, well sites, and all above-ground facilities), 

access roads, pipe and contractor yards, and temporary work space.”62 INGAA and 

National Fuel request that the Commission clarify that “affected landowners” only 

 61 National Fuel’s Request for Rehearing at 4.

62 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 56.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 39 -

include landowners that will be subject to ground disturbance on their properties, and not 

landowners whose property is merely crossed and not otherwise disturbed.63 

51. As proposed in the NOPR, section 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) would have required a 

company to give prior notification to all landowners whose property would be used or 

crossed. As proposed in the NOPR, sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) also would have 

required a company to give prior notification to owners of abutting properties and the 

owners of residences within 50 feet.64 However, in response to comments on the NOPR, 

the Final Rule revised sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c) to state that companies are only 

required to give prior notification to the owners of those properties that are crossed or 

used when companies perform ground-disturbing activities.65 In response to INGAA’s 

and National Fuel’s comments, we find it is appropriate to further revise sections 2.55(c) 

and 380.15(c) to specify that companies must provide prior notice only to the owner of 

property used for a ground-disturbing activity, and not to landowners whose property is 

crossed en route to the site of that activity.66 

 63 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 16-17 and National Fuel’s Request for

Rehearing at 4-5.

64 NOPR, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 32,696 at P 30.

65 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 56.

66 We note that this clarification does not exempt companies from complying with 

the terms of any existing easement agreements or any applicable state or local laws 

governing the use of or access to property not within a company’s rights-of-way or 

facility sites.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 40 -

52. INGAA and National Fuel also request that the Commission clarify that the fiveday prior notice requirement does not apply when the ground-disturbing activity will 

occur entirely within the fence line of an existing above-ground facility site.67 In 

situations where a company’s facilities are located inside a fenced area on property that 

the company does not own but to which it has easement rights, we agree that a 

requirement of prior notice to the landowner is not necessary if all ground disturbance 

will be confined to within the fenced area, and we will revise sections 2.55(c)(1) and 

380.15(c)(1) accordingly. When any ground disturbance caused by a company’s 

activities to install or replace equipment under section 2.55 or by equipment associated 

with maintenance activities under section 380.15 is confined inside the company’s 

fenced-in easement areas, e.g., a compressor station or site used for pigging equipment, 

the activities do not present the same potentially hazardous situations or inconvenience to 

a landowner as ground-disturbing activities in an unfenced area, e.g., the replacement of 

pipe under the landowner’s driveway. However, even when companies’ grounddisturbing activities will be within their fenced-in easement areas, as a matter of courtesy, 

we encourage companies to give prior notice to landowners to the extent practicable. 

4. One-Call Obligations

53. INGAA requests we clarify that the requirement for prior notice to landowners 

adopted by the Final Rule for activities under sections 2.55 and 380.15 does not apply to 

 67 Id.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 41 -

“One Call” obligations.68 INGAA states that such programs require companies to mark 

their facilities within 48 to 72 hours of receiving notification that a landowner or third 

party will be digging near natural gas facilities to prevent damage. Therefore, INGAA 

argues that a company cannot wait five days to comply with its “One Call” obligations.69 

We agree that the “One Call” obligations do not fall under the Final Rule’s landowner 

notification requirements. This is because merely marking the location of buried natural 

gas facilities (typically with flags or spray paint) does not involve a ground disturbance. 

However, in the event a company’s response to a “One Call” request results in grounddisturbing activity to locate, relocate, or isolate any of its facilities,70 then the exemption 

provided in the prior notice provisions for emergency activities would apply.

5. Burden Resulting from the Landowner Notification 

Requirement

54. INGAA claims that we have not met our obligation to estimate the burden of the 

Final Rule’s notification requirement in a way that is not arbitrary or capricious, and then 

 68 The “One Call” program is a service used by public utilities and some private 

sector companies (e.g. oil pipeline and cable television) to provide pre-construction 

information to contractors or other maintenance workers on the location of underground 

pipes, cables, and culverts. Similar utility-marking programs go by different names in 

different regions.

69 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 17.

70 National Fuel notes that “to determine and mark the precise location of its 

facilities ... may require some excavation.” National Fuel’s Request for Rehearing 

at 3-4.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 42 -

weigh the benefit of the rule against that burden.71 In this regard, National Fuel states 

that our use of an estimate based solely on the number of section 2.55(a) auxiliary 

installation activities performed each year (which, it points out, are construction 

activities) to derive a reasonable estimate of the number of ground-disturbing activities 

under section 2.55 and section 380.15 that would require landowner notification, is 

arbitrary and too low.72 

55. To estimate the burden of the Final Rule’s section 2.55 and section 380.15 

landowner notification requirements, Commission staff surveyed nine jurisdictional 

companies, and based on that sample, estimated that all 165 jurisdictional companies 

perform approximately 7,605 auxiliary installation projects each year under section 

2.55(a), including activities that do not involve ground disturbance.73 While we 

recognize that the number of maintenance activities undertaken by a company may far 

exceed the number of its auxiliary installations, we believe ground-disturbing activities 

for maintenance purposes under section 380.15, like ground-disturbing activities to install 

auxiliary facilities under section 2.55(a) and replace facilities under section 2.55(b), are 

significantly fewer in number than the activities under those sections that do not involve 

ground disturbance. We also believe that ground-disturbing activities, including ground-

 71 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 17-18.

72 National Fuel’s Request for Rehearing at 6.

73 Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 77 and n.115. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 43 -

disturbing maintenance, generally take advance planning.74 Further, companies have 

long been subject to the requirement to give landowners notice of certain planned 

activities, and therefore presumably already have the information, personnel, and other 

resources necessary to enable them to satisfy those other, long-standing landowner 

notification requirements. 

56. In view of these considerations, we believe our estimate in the Final Rule of the 

total number of all companies’ annual auxiliary installations under section 2.55(a) that 

involve ground disturbance was reasonable, and that it also was reasonable to multiply 

that number by two to estimate the total annual number of activities -- including all 

auxiliary installations under sections 2.55(a), replacement projects under section 2.55(b), 

and maintenance activities under section 380.15 -- that will involve ground disturbance 

and will therefore require prior notice to landowners. Further, we believe the 

reasonableness of our burden estimate in the Final Rule is also supported by the 

clarification in this order that ground-disturbing activities are exempt from the prior 

notice requirement in emergency situations and in situations where all ground 

disturbances will be confined entirely to areas within the fence line of an existing aboveground facility site.

 74 NOPR, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 32,696 at P 39.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 44 -

57. National Fuel states that every year it performs “thousands” of ground-disturbing 

maintenance activities that will now require landowner notification.75 National Fuel fears 

that activities such as maintaining existing access roads and existing erosion control 

structures will require it to satisfy unduly burdensome landowner notification 

requirements.76 We recognize that some activities to maintain existing access roads 

(e.g., scraping to remove old asphalt and resurfacing) or existing erosion control 

structures (e.g., pushing back soil or rocks that were intended to prevent erosion) may not 

involve a significant amount of ground disturbance. However, such activities require the 

use of bulldozers, backhoes, dump trucks and other equipment that can present safety 

hazards and cause inconvenience to landowners. Therefore, we will not exempt grounddisturbing activities under section 380.15 to maintain existing facilities from the 

landowner notification requirement.

58. While INGAA and National Fuel insist that we have underestimated the burden 

that the landowner notification will cause the industry, this assertion assumes that most 

jurisdictional companies were not already notifying landowners when work is to be 

performed on their property, whether such notification is required or not. 

59. Section 157.6(d)(1) of the regulations requires applicants for case-specific 

certificate authority for construction projects to notify all landowners that will be affected 

 75 National Fuel’s Request for Rehearing at 6.

76 Id.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 45 -

by the project. Section 157.203(d) of the blanket certificate regulations requires that 

companies give landowners notice of all projects subject to those regulations’ prior notice 

provisions. Thus, companies likely have a database of landowners dating from the time 

many of their facilities were originally put in service. As discussed in the Final Rule, we 

believe most companies maintain and update these databases because, regardless of their 

size, they need to know (to enhance, replace, and maintain their facilities and to respond 

to emergencies) precisely where their rights-of-way lie, how to get to their facilities, and 

how to contact the owners of the properties on which their facilities are located.

77 As 

also discussed in the Final Rule, companies need to periodically update landowner 

information to be able to comply with DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety 

Administration’s (PHMSA) biennial reporting requirement.78 Therefore, to identify the 

landowners to notify, companies will not be starting from scratch, but instead should be 

able to rely on the landowner records previously compiled to satisfy the Commission’s 

and PHMSA’s notification requirements. Since PHMSA’s notification requirement is 

ongoing, a company’s efforts to update portions of its landowner database as needed to 

meet the section 2.55 and section 380.15 notice provisions can be expected to result in a 

corresponding reduction in the company’s efforts necessary to comply with PHMSA’s 

notification requirement.

 77 See Order No. 790, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,351 at P 79. 

78 Id. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 46 -

60. Further, comments on the NOPR call attention to some companies’ ongoing 

community relations programs, which like the required PHMSA report, serve to inform 

landowners of their plans for construction and maintenance activities in coming 

months.79 While these notifications generally do not include specific details regarding 

the work that may take place on a landowner’s property and only provide an approximate 

time period for when the work will be done, companies nevertheless have to identify 

landowners to send out these notifications. Companies should be able to use landowner 

lists developed in connection with community relations programs and in conjunction with 

compliance with PHMSA requirements as a basis for meeting the prior notice 

requirements of sections 2.55(c) and 380.15(c). In our burden estimate, we did not 

attempt to account for lists that companies may have on hand to send information to 

landowners as part of community relations or PHMSA compliance. 

C. Consistency with the Commission’s Regulations

61. INGAA requests that the Commission revise certain regulations to ensure 

regulatory consistency as a result of the Final Rule. INGAA notes that 

section 157.206(b)(1) of the Commission’s regulations for blanket certificate projects 

 79 See, e.g., Golden Triangle Storage, Inc.’s March 5, 2013 Comments on the

NOPR at 4; INGAA’s March 5, 2013 Comments on the NOPR at 13-14; MidAmerican 

Energy Pipeline Group’s March 5, 2013 Comments on the NOPR at 4; National Fuel’s 

March 5, 2013 Comments on the NOPR at 4; Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Inc.’s 

March 5, 2013 Comments on the NOPR at 6-7; and WBI Energy Transmission Inc.’s 

March 5, 2013 Comments on the NOPR at 7.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 47 -

includes a general reference to section 380.1580 and proposes this be revised to 

specifically refer to sections 380.15(a) and (b). We agree and will revise 

section 157.206(b)(1) accordingly. This order and the Final Rule reduced the number of 

landowners to which the NOPR would have required that companies give prior notice for 

purposes of section 2.55 and section 380.15 activities by modifying the definition of 

“affected landowners.” “Affected landowners” now excludes owners of properties that 

will need to be crossed but not otherwise disturbed, as well as owners of abutting 

properties and owners of properties that contain residences within 50 feet of planned 

work areas where no ground-disturbing work will occur; in contrast the blanket certificate 

regulations’ landowner notification requirement relies on the definition of affected 

landowners in section 157.6(d)(2) of the regulations, which includes these additional 

property owners. Further, section 157.203(d)(1) requires at least 45 days prior notice to 

landowners for automatic blanket projects,81 while the new landowner notification 

 80 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 19-20.

81 The requirement in section 157.203(d)(1) for at least 45 days prior notice is 

separate from the requirement in section 157.205(d)(2) that projects exceeding the 

automatic cost limit be publically noticed by the Commission at least 60 days in advance, 

with the project sponsor to notify affected landowners the earlier of (1) three days from 

when the Commission assigns a docket number to the proposed project or (2) when the 

project sponsor initiates easement negotiations for the proposed project. 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 48 -

requirement for section 2.55 and section 380.15 activities requires a minimum of only 

five days prior notice.82 

62. INGAA also notes that the Final Rule replaced the NOPR’s proposed term 

“original” in section 2.55(b)(1)(ii) with the term “existing” but did not make similar 

changes to Appendix A of Part 2. For consistency, INGAA requests that the Commission 

replace the term “original” with “existing” in Appendix A of Part 2.83 We agree and will 

revise Appendix A of Part 2.

III. Information Collection Statement

63. The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)84 requires each federal agency to seek and 

obtain Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval before undertaking a 

collection of information directed to ten or more persons or contained in a rule of general 

applicability.85 The OMB’s regulations implementing the PRA require approval of 

certain information collection requirements imposed by agency rules.86 

 82 As previously discussed, whereas section 2.55 and section 380.15 of the 

regulations do not include any specific environmental conditions because activities under 

those sections are limited to areas subject to environment review by the Commission, an 

activity cannot go forward under the blanket certificate regulations unless the company 

has satisfied all of the specific environmental conditions set forth in section 157.206 of 

the blanket certificate regulations.

83 INGAA’s Request for Rehearing at 20.

84 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 (2012).

85 OMB’s regulations at 5 CFR 1320.3(c)(4)(i) (2014) require that “[a]ny 

recordkeeping, reporting, or disclosure requirement contained in a rule of general 

(continued ...)
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 49 -

64. The Commission submitted the Final Rule’s information collection statement for 

landowner notification requirements under sections 2.55, 157.203(d)(3)(i), and 380.15 of 

the regulations to OMB for its review and approval, and OMB granted approval under 

OMB Control No. 1902-0128. While this rule clarifies certain aspects of the existing 

information collection requirements for landowner notification, it does not add to these 

requirements. Accordingly, a copy of this Final Rule will be sent to OMB for 

informational purposes only.

IV. Environmental Analysis

65. The Commission is required to prepare an Environmental Assessment or an 

Environmental Impact Statement for any action that may have a significant adverse effect 

on the human environment.87 The Commission has categorically excluded certain actions 

from these requirements as not having a significant effect on the human environment.88 

Generally, the regulatory actions taken in this rulemaking proceeding fall within the 

categorical exclusions in the Commission’s regulations for actions that are clarifying, 

 

applicability is deemed to involve ten or more persons.”

86 5 CFR 1320 (2014).

87 Regulations Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 

Order No. 486, 52 FR 47897 (December 17, 1987), FERC Stats. & Regs., Regulations 

Preambles 1986-1990 ¶ 30,783 (1987).

88 18 CFR 380.4 (2014).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 50 -

corrective, or procedural and for information gathering, analysis, and dissemination.89 

Accordingly, an environmental review is not necessary and has not been prepared in 

connection with this rulemaking.

V. Document Availability

66. In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the Federal Register, the 

Commission provides all interested persons an opportunity to view and/or print the 

contents of this document via the Internet through FERC's Home Page 

(http://www.ferc.gov) and in FERC's Public Reference Room during normal business 

hours (8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time) at 888 First Street, NE, Room 2A, 

Washington, DC 20426.

67. From FERC's Home Page on the Internet, this information is available on 

eLibrary. The full text of this document is available on eLibrary in PDF and Microsoft 

Word format for viewing, printing, and/or downloading. To access this document in 

eLibrary, type the docket number excluding the last three digits of this document in the 

docket number field.

68. User assistance is available for eLibrary and the FERC’s website during normal 

business hours from FERC Online Support at (202) 502-6652 (toll free at 1-866-208-

3676) or email at ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov, or the Public Reference Room at (202) 

 89 18 CFR 380.4(a)(1) and (5) (2014).
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 51 -

502-8371, TTY (202) 502-8659. E-mail the Public Reference Room at 

public.referenceroom@ferc.gov.

VI. Effective Date and Congressional Notification

69. These regulations are effective [insert date 60 days from publication in Federal 

Register]. The Commission has determined that this rule is not a “major rule” as defined 

in section 351 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.

List of subjects 

18 CFR Part 2

Administrative practice and procedure, and Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

18 CFR Part 157

Administrative practice and procedure, Natural gas, and Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 52 -

18 CFR Part 380

Environmental impact statements, and Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

By the Commission.

( S E A L )

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr.,

Deputy Secretary.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 53 -

In consideration of the foregoing, the Commission amends Parts 2, 157, and 380, 

Chapter I, Title 18, Code of Federal Regulations, as follows:

PART 2 – GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS

1. The authority citation for Part 2 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 601; 15 U.S.C. 717-717z, 3301-3432; 16 U.S.C. 792-828c, 2601-

2645, 42 U.S.C. 4321-4370h, 7101-7352.

2. Amend § 2.55 by revising paragraph (c) to read as follows:

§ 2.55 Definition of terms used in section 7(c).

* * * * *

(c) * * * 

(1) No activity described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section that involves 

ground disturbance is authorized unless a company makes a good faith effort to notify in 

writing each affected landowner, as noted in the most recent county/city tax records as 

receiving the tax notice, whose property will be used and subject to ground disturbance as 

a result of the proposed activity, at least five days prior to commencing any activity under 

this section. A landowner may waive the five-day prior notice requirement in writing, so 

long as the notice has been provided. No landowner notice under this section is required: 

(i) if all ground disturbance will be confined entirely to areas within the fence line of an 

existing above-ground site of facilities operated by the company; or (ii) for activities 

done for safety, DOT compliance, or environmental or unplanned maintenance reasons 

that are not foreseen and that require immediate attention by the company. The 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 54 -

notification shall include at least: (i) a brief description of the facilities to be constructed 

or replaced and the effect the activity may have on the landowner's property; (ii) the 

name and phone number of a company representative who is knowledgeable about the 

project; and (iii) a description of the Commission’s Dispute Resolution Division 

Helpline, which an affected person may contact to seek an informal resolution of a 

dispute as explained in section 1b.21(g) of the Commission’s regulations and the Dispute 

Resolution Division Helpline number.

(2) “Affected landowners” include owners of interests, as noted in the most recent 

county/city tax records as receiving tax notice, in properties (including properties subject 

to rights-of-way and easements for facility sites, compressor stations, well sites, and all 

above-ground facilities, and access roads, pipe and contractor yards, and temporary work 

space) that will be directly affected by (i.e., used) and subject to ground disturbance as a 

result of activity under this section.

3. Amend Appendix A to Part 2 to read as follows:

Appendix A to Part 2--Guidance for Determining the Acceptable Construction Area 

for Auxiliary and Replacement Facilities

These guidelines shall be followed to determine what area may be used to 

construct the auxiliary or replacement facility. Specifically, they address what areas, in 

addition to the permanent right-of-way, may be used.

An auxiliary or replacement facility must be within the existing right-of-way or 

facility site as specified by § 2.55(a)(1) or § 2.55(b)(1)(ii). Construction activities for the 

auxiliary or replacement facility can extend outside the current permanent right-of-way if
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 55 -

they are within the temporary and permanent right-of-way and associated work spaces 

authorized for the construction of the existing installation.

If documentation is not available on the location and width of the temporary and 

permanent rights-of-way and associated work spaces that were used to construct the 

existing facility, the company may use the following guidance for the auxiliary 

installation or replacement, provided the appropriate easements have been obtained:

a. Construction should be limited to no more than a 75–foot–wide right-of-way 

including the existing permanent right-of-way for large diameter pipeline (pipe greater 

than 12 inches in diameter) to carry out routine construction. Pipeline 12 inches in 

diameter and smaller should use no more than a 50–foot–wide right-of-way.

b. The temporary right-of-way (working side) should be on the same side that was 

used in constructing the existing pipeline.

c. A reasonable amount of additional temporary work space on both sides of roads 

and interstate highways, railroads, and significant stream crossings and in side-slope 

areas is allowed. The size should be dependent upon site-specific conditions. Typical 

work spaces are:

Item Typical extra area (width/length)

Two lane road (bored) 25-50 by 100 feet.

Four lane road (bored) 50 by 100 feet.

Major river (wet cut) 100 by 200 feet.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 56 -

Intermediate stream (wet cut) 50 by 100 feet.

Single railroad track 25-50 by 100 feet.

d. The auxiliary or replacement facility must be located within the permanent 

right-of-way or, in the case of nonlinear facilities, the cleared building site. In the case of 

pipelines this is assumed to be 50 feet wide and centered over the pipeline unless 

otherwise legally specified.

However, use of the above guidelines for work space size is constrained by the 

physical evidence in the area. Areas obviously not cleared during the existing 

construction, as evidenced by stands of mature trees, structures, or other features that 

exceed the age of the facility being replaced, should not be used for construction of the 

auxiliary or replacement facility.

If these guidelines cannot be met, the company should consult with the 

Commission's staff to determine if the exemption afforded by § 2.55 may be used. If the 

exemption may not be used, construction authorization must be obtained pursuant to 

another regulation under the Natural Gas Act.

PART 157 – APPLICATIONS FOR CERTIFICATES OF PUBLIC 

CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY AND FOR ORDERS PREMITTING AND 

APPROVING ABANDONMENT UNDER SECTION 7 OF THE NATURAL GAS 

ACT

1. The authority citation for Part 157 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 15 U.S.C. 717-717z.
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 57 -

2. Amend § 157.206 by revising paragraph (b)(1) to read as follows:

§ 157.206 Standard Conditions.

* * * * *

(b) * * *

(1) The certificate holder shall adopt the requirements set forth in § 380.15(a) 

and (b) of this chapter for all activities authorized by the blanket certificate and shall 

issue the relevant portions thereof to construction personnel, with instructions to use 

them.

* * * * *

PART 380 – REGULATIONS IMPLEMENTING THE NATIONAL 

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT

1. The authority citation for Part 380 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321-4370h, 7101-7352; E.O. 12009, 3 CFR 1978 Comp., p. 142.

2. Amend § 380.15 by revising paragraph (c) to read as follows:

§ 380.15 Siting and maintenance requirements.

* * * * *

(c) * * * 

(1) No activity described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section that involves 

ground disturbance is authorized unless a company makes a good faith effort to notify in 

writing each affected landowner, as noted in the most recent county/city tax records as 

receiving the tax notice, whose property will be used and subject to ground disturbance as 
Docket No. RM12-11-002 - 58 -

a result of the proposed activity, at least five days prior to commencing any activity under 

this section. A landowner may waive the five-day prior notice requirement in writing, so 

long as the notice has been provided. No landowner notice under this section is required: 

(i) if all ground disturbance will be confined entirely to areas within the fence line of an 

existing above-ground site of facilities operated by the company; or (ii) for activities 

done for safety, DOT compliance, or environmental or unplanned maintenance reasons 

that are not foreseen and that require immediate attention by the company. The 

notification shall include at least: (i) a brief description of the facilities to be constructed 

or replaced and the effect the activity may have on the landowner's property; (ii) the 

name and phone number of a company representative who is knowledgeable about the 

project; and (iii) a description of the Commission’s Dispute Resolution Division 

Helpline, which an affected person may contact to seek an informal resolution of a 

dispute as explained in section 1b.21(g) of the Commission’s regulations and the Dispute 

Resolution Division Helpline number.

(2) “Affected landowners” include owners of interests, as noted in the most recent 

county/city tax records as receiving tax notice, in properties (including properties subject 

to rights-of-way and easements for facility sites, compressor stations, well sites, and all 

above-ground facilities, and access roads, pipe and contractor yards, and temporary work 

space) that will be directly affected by (i.e., used) and subject to ground disturbance as a 

result of activity under this section.

* * * * *