Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 12 / Thursday, January 19, 1995 / Proposed Rules 3783

1Pipeline Service Obligations and Revisions to

Regulations Governing Self-Implementing

Transportation; and Regulation of Natural Gas

Pipelines After Partial Wellhead Decontrol, 57 FR

13267 (Apr. 16, 1992), III FERC Stats. & Regs.

Preambles ¶ 30,939 (Apr. 8, 1992), order on reh’g,

Order No. 636–A, 57 FR 36128 (Aug. 12, 1992), III

FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles ¶ 30,950 (Aug. 3,

1992), order on reh’g, Order No. 636–B, 57 FR

57911 (Dec. 8, 1992), 61 FERC ¶ 61,272 (1992),

appeal re-docketed sub nom., Atlanta Gas Light

Company and Chattanooga Gas Company, et al. v.

FERC, No. 94–1171 (D.C. Cir. May 27, 1994).

2Order No. 636–A, III FERC Stats. & Regs.

Preambles at 30,553.

where it will occur and what aircraft types

are involved.

Issued under authority delegated in 49 CFR

1.56a(h)(2) in Washington, D.C. on January

12, 1995.

Patrick V. Murphy,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Aviation and

International Affairs.

[FR Doc. 95–1331 Filed 1–18–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–62–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

18 CFR Part 284

[Docket No. RM95–5–000]

Release of Firm Capacity on Interstate

Natural Gas Pipelines

January 12, 1995.

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY: The Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission is proposing to

amend its capacity release regulations to

permit firm shippers of natural gas to

negotiate prearranged releases of

capacity for a full calendar month

without compliance with the

Commission’s advance posting and

bidding requirements. The amendment

would make it easier to negotiate shortterm capacity release transactions and

would ease the reporting burden on

industry.

DATES: Comments are due February 21,

1995.

ADDRESSES: An original and 14 copies of

comments must be filed and refer to

Docket No. RM95–5–000. Comments

should be addressed to: Office of the

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission, 825 North Capitol Street

NE., Washington, DC 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Goldenberg, Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission, 825 North

Capitol Street NE., Washington, DC

20426, (202) 208–2294

Joseph Vasapoli, Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission, 825 North

Capitol Street NE., Washington, DC

20426, (202) 208–0620.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In

addition to publishing the full text of

this document in the Federal Register,

the Commission also provides all

interested persons an opportunity to

inspect or copy the contents of this

document during normal business hours

in Room 3104, 941 North Capitol Street

NE., Washington DC 20426.

The Commission Issuance Posting

System (CIPS), an electronic bulletin

board service, provides access to the

texts of formal documents issued by the

Commission. CIPS is available at no

charge to the user and may be accessed

using a personal computer with a

modem by dialing (202) 208–1397. To

access CIPS, set your communications

software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600,

7200, 4800, 2400, 1200 or 300bps, full

duplex, no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop

bit. The full text of this document will

be available on CIPS for 60 days from

the date of issuance in ASCII and

WordPerfect 5.1 format. After 60 days

the document will be archived, but still

accessible. The complete text on

diskette in WordPerfect format may also

be purchased from the Commission’s

copy contractor, La Dorn Systems

Corporation, also located in Room 3104,

941 North Capitol Street NE.,

Washington DC 20426.

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

January 12, 1995.

In Order No. 636,1 the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission (Commission)

established a mechanism under which

firm holders of capacity could release

unneeded capacity they held on

interstate pipelines to other shippers

needing that capacity. The Commission

is proposing to amend one provision of

its capacity release regulations,

§ 284.243(h), to extend to one month the

time period for which shippers can

release firm capacity without having to

comply with the Commission’s advance

posting and bidding requirements. The

current regulations restrict this ability to

less than one calendar month.

I. Reporting Requirements

The proposed rule affects the

information required to be maintained

on pipeline electronic bulletin boards

(EBBs). The public reporting burden for

EBBs is contained in the information

requirement FERC–549(B), ‘‘Gas

Pipeline Rates: Capacity Release

Information.’’ If adopted, the proposed

rule would eliminate the need for the

industry to continue the current practice

of using two capacity release postings (a

less-than-one month release coupled

with a one-day release) to complete a

full month release transaction. Under

the proposed rule, full month releases

could be accomplished with only one

such posting. The Commission

estimates that approximately 1,500

paired release transactions occur per

year. At an average burden of one hour

per posting, the annual reduction in

burden as a result of this rule is

approximately 1,500 hours.

A copy of this proposed rule is being

provided to the Office of Management

and Budget (OMB). Interested persons

may send comments regarding the

burden estimates or any other aspect of

this collection of information, including

suggestions for further reductions of this

burden, to the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission, 941 North

Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.

20426 [Attention: Michael Miller,

Information Services Division, (202)

208–1415, FAX (202) 208–2425].

Comments on the requirements of this

proposed rule may also be sent to the

Office of Information and Regulatory

Affairs of OMB, Washington, D.C. 20503

[Attention: Desk Officer for Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission (202)

395–6880, FAX (202) 395–5167].

II. Background

Under the regulations promulgated in

Order No. 636, holders of firm capacity

on pipelines could reassign that

capacity in two ways. The releasing

shipper could choose to have the

pipeline post the notice of release on the

pipeline’s Electronic Bulletin Board

(EBB) so other shippers could submit

bids for that capacity, with the capacity

awarded to the highest bidder. Or, the

releasing shipper could enter into a prearranged deal with another shipper

(replacement shipper) for the release of

capacity. For a pre-arranged release at

less than the maximum rate, the

pipeline had to post the release on its

EBB to permit other shippers to bid for

that capacity. If a shipper bid more than

the pre-arranged release rate, the

designated replacement shipper was

given the opportunity to match that bid

to retain the capacity.

In Order No. 636–A, several

petitioners requested an exemption from

the bidding process for short-term prearranged release transactions,

contending that the requirements for

advance posting and bidding are too

administratively difficult for such

transactions and could inhibit the

efficient allocation of capacity.2 In

response, the Commission promulgated

§ 224.243(h), permitting firm shippers to
3784 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 12 / Thursday, January 19, 1995 / Proposed Rules

3See Order No. 636–A, III FERC Stats. & Regs.

Preambles at 30,554; Order No. 636–B, 61 FERC at

61,994–95.

4Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, 67

FERC ¶ 61,385 at 62,316–17 (1994) (Commission

denied the requests because it wanted to ensure that

changes to the capacity release system were

uniform for all pipelines).

5Order No. 486, Regulations Implementing the

National Environmental Policy Act, 52 FR 47897

(Dec. 17, 1987), FERC Stats. & Regs. Preambles

1986–1990 ¶ 30,783 (1987).

6 18 CFR 380.4.

7See 18 CFR 380.4(a)(2)(ii), 380.4(a)(5).

8 5 U.S.C. 601–612.

release capacity to a designated

replacement shipper for a period of less

than one calendar month without

having to comply with the advance

posting and bidding requirements.

Releases under this provision would

have to be posted no later than 48 hours

after the release transaction begins. In

addition, the Commission prohibited

parties in transactions covered by this

exception from rolling-over or granting

extensions without complying with the

requirements for prior notice and

bidding.

The Commission adopted the lessthan-one calendar month exception to

balance two objectives of the capacity

release mechanism.3 The exception

served to promote a robust secondary

market by ensuring that parties could

quickly and efficiently consummate

short-term deals in emergency

situations, such as a power plant outage

resulting in excess capacity, without the

administrative complications resulting

from the advance posting and bidding

requirements. On the other hand, the

restriction to less-than-one calendar

month was intended to ensure that

normal monthly transactions would

have to comply with the advance

posting and bidding requirements to

ensure open and non-discriminatory

access to the capacity release market.

The Commission expressed confidence

that the pipelines could design capacity

release procedures to efficiently handle

full calendar month transactions.

The capacity release system has now

been in effect for a full year and the

Commission has begun the process of

evaluating the system’s operation. In the

course of this review, the staff of the

Commission has conducted informal

discussions about the operation of the

capacity release system and possible

changes or modifications to improve the

system with all major segments of the

gas industry, including pipelines, local

distribution companies, marketers,

producers, end-users, and others

interested in the capacity release

market, such as companies developing

third-party bulletin boards.

III. Discussion

The Commission is now proposing to

amend § 284.243(h) to extend the shortterm release exception from less than

one calendar month to a full calendar

month. The revision would permit firm

shippers to negotiate pre-arranged

releases for a full calendar month

without having to comply with the

advance posting and bidding

requirements.

During the course of staff’s review of

the capacity release system, industry

participants overwhelmingly

recommended that the less-than-one

calendar month exception be modified

to a full calendar month. They argued

that the industry generally conducts its

gas purchases on a monthly basis, so

that customers requiring capacity need

to acquire a full month’s capacity. They

further pointed out that most monthly

transactions occur during a very

compressed time period known as bid

week and that this time pressure

requires that shippers be able to obtain

released capacity quickly with the

certainty that the deal will go through

as negotiated.

As a result, the industry has

developed a practice of designing socalled ‘‘29/1 day’’ deals to arrive at full

month releases. Under this practice,

shippers release capacity under the

§ 284.243(h) exception for 29 days (or

less than one calendar month) and then

post a release offer for bidding for the

remaining day of the month. This

practice ensures that the designated

replacement shipper can obtain a full

month’s capacity, since rarely do other

shippers want to purchase capacity for

one day or the one-day prearranged deal

is posted at the maximum rate. While

this procedure does permit full month

releases, the industry participants

claimed that posting for one day is

administratively cumbersome. They

pointed out that the 29/1 day deals

require two EBB postings, the

consummation of a second contract with

the pipelines, and the need for two bills.

Pipelines similarly have sought waivers

of the Commission’s regulations to

change the definition of short-term

prearranged releases to one full calendar

month to eliminate the administrative

burdens associated with double release

requests.4

Based on the seeming unanimity of

support for extending the short term

exception to one full calendar month,

the Commission is proposing to make

this change. This revision should

promote a more effective capacity

release market because it will better

comport with the industry’s purchasing

practices and will provide the speed

and certainty needed for one month

transactions, without entailing the

administrative burdens inherent in the

29/1 day deals.

The Commission’s original reason for

restricting the short-term exception to

less-than-one calendar month deals was

to limit the exception to emergency

situations, so as to maximize the open

bidding for capacity. The Commission

believed at the time that the pipelines’

posting and bidding procedures could

be designed to permit normal onemonth transactions. However, the

widespread use of 29/1 day deals

demonstrates that bidding for one

month deals is not taking place, and any

attempt to limit or restrict the 29/1

practice in order to further promote

bidding would seem only to create

further inefficiencies. On balance,

therefore, the greater speed and

efficiency made possible by the

elimination of the less-than-one

calendar month restriction appears to

outweigh any potential loss from the

elimination of the advance posting and

bidding requirements. The Commission

and the industry will still be able to

monitor one month deals for adherence

to the Commission’s policies against

undue discrimination because all deals

will be posted on the pipelines’ EBBs

within 48 hours.

Given the apparent broad support for

changing the short term exception, the

Commission is proposing to make this

one change at this time so it can be

implemented as quickly as possible.

This, however, is not the end of the

Commission’s inquiry. The Commission

still is considering further adjustments

to the capacity release mechanism.

IV. Environmental Analysis

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.5 The Commission has

categorically excluded certain actions

from these requirements as not having a

significant effect on the human

environment.6 The action taken here

falls within categorical exclusions

provided in the Commission’s

regulations.7 Therefore, an

environmental assessment is

unnecessary and has not been prepared

in this rulemaking.

V. Regulatory Flexibility Act

Certification

The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980

(RFA) 8 generally requires a description
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 12 / Thursday, January 19, 1995 / Proposed Rules 3785

9 5 CFR 1320.13.

1See 59 FR 39020 (Part II) (Aug. 1, 1994).

2 IDs concerning temporary relief are processed

differently from other types of IDs and thus are not

Continued

and analysis of final rules that will have

significant economic impact on a

substantial number of small entities.

Since the proposed regulations do not

increase the burdens on any companies

or entities, they will not have a

significant impact on small entities.

Pursuant to section 605(b) of the RFA,

the Commission hereby certifies that the

regulations proposed herein will not

have a significant impact on a

substantial number of small entities.

VI. Information Collection Requirement

OMB regulations require approval of

certain information collection

requirements imposed by agency rules.9

The information requirements affected

by this proposed rule are in FERC–549B,

‘‘Gas Pipeline Rates: Capacity Release

Information’’ (1902–0169). The

Commission is issuing the proposed

rulemaking including the information

requirements to carry out its regulatory

responsibilities under the Natural Gas

Act (NGA) and Natural Gas Policy Act

(NGPA) to promote a more effective

capacity release market as instituted by

the Commission’s Order No. 636. The

Commission’s Office of Pipeline

Regulation uses the data to review/

monitor capacity release transactions as

well as firm and interruptible capacity

made available by pipelines and to take

appropriate action, where and when

necessary. The collection of information

is intended to be the minimum needed

for posting on EBBs to provide

information about the availability of

service on interstate pipelines.

The Commission is submitting to the

Office of Management and the Budget a

notification of the proposed revision to

the collection of information. Interested

persons may obtain information on

these reporting requirements by

contacting the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission, 941 North

Capitol Street NE., Washington, DC

20426 [Attention: Michael Miller,

Information Services Division, (202)

208–1415], FAX (202) 208–2425.

Comments on the requirements of this

rule can be sent to OMB’s Office of

Information and Regulatory Affairs,

Washington, DC 20503 [Attention: Desk

Officer for Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission (202) 395–6880, FAX (202)

395–5167].

VII. Comment Procedures

The Commission invites interested

persons to submit written comments on

the matters proposed in this notice,

including any related matters or

alternative proposals that commenters

may wish to discuss. An original and 14

copies of comments to this notice must

be filed with the Commission no later

than February 21, 1995. Comments

should be submitted to the Office of the

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission, 825 North Capitol Street

NE., Washington, DC 20426, and should

refer to Docket No. RM95–5–000.

All written comments will be placed

in the Commission’s public files and

will be available for inspection in the

Commission’s Public Reference Room at

941 North Capitol Street NE.,

Washington, DC 20426, during regular

business hours.

List of Subjects in 18 CFR Part 284

Continental shelf, Natural gas,

Reporting and recordkeeping

requirements.

By direction of the Commission.

Lois D. Cashell,

Secretary.

In consideration of the foregoing, the

Commission proposes to amend Part

284, Chapter I, Title 18, Code of Federal

Regulations, as set forth below.

PART 284—CERTAIN SALES AND

TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL GAS

UNDER THE NATURAL GAS POLICY

ACT OF 1978 AND RELATED

AUTHORITIES

1. The authority citation for Part 284

continues to read as follows:

Authority: 15 U.S.C. 717–717w, 3301–

3432; 42 U.S.C 7101–7532; 43 U.S.C 1331–

1356.

2. In § 284.243, the first sentence of

paragraph (h)(1) is revised to read as

follows:

§ 284.243 Release of firm capacity on

interstate pipelines.

* * * * *

(h)(1) A release of capacity by a firm

shipper to a replacement shipper for a

period of one calendar month or less

need not comply with the notification

and bidding requirements of paragraphs

(c) through (e) of this section. * * *

* * * * *

[FR Doc. 95–1295 Filed 1–18–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P

International Trade Commission

19 CFR Part 210

Advance Notice of Proposed

Rulemaking Concerning Commission

Voting Procedures in Investigations

and Related Proceedings on Unfair

Practices in Import Trade.

AGENCY: International Trade

Commission.

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed

rulemaking and request for comments.

SUMMARY: The Commission is

considering revision of its recently

effective final rules for investigations

and related proceedings under section

337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C.

§ 1337) to do the following: increase the

number of votes required for the

Commission to either review an initial

determination (ID) on a matter other

than temporary relief or grant a request

for oral argument in connection with

such a review; and prescribe the effect

of a tie vote concerning post-review

disposition of an ID on a matter other

than temporary relief.

The Commission hereby solicits

written comments from interested

persons to aid the Commission in

determining whether it should revise

the final rules in the manner specified

below.

DATES: Comments will be considered if

received on or before March 20, 1995.

ADDRESSES: A signed original and 18

copies of each set of comments, along

with a cover letter stating the nature of

the commenter’s interest in the

proposed rulemaking, should be

submitted to Donna R. Koehnke,

Secretary, U.S. International Trade

Commission, 500 E Street, SW., Room

112, Washington, DC 20436.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: P.

N. Smithey, Esq., Office of the General

Counsel, U.S. International Trade

Commission, telephone 202–205–3061.

Hearing-impaired individuals can

obtain information concerning the

proposed rulemaking by contacting the

Commission’s TDD terminal at 202–

205–1810.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On August 1, 1994, the Commission

published final rules for 19 CFR part

210 to replace the interim rules

currently found in 19 CFR parts 210 and

211.1 Final rule 210.43(d)(3) indicates

that the Commission will review an

initial determination (ID) concerning a

matter other than temporary relief when

at least one of the participating

Commissioners votes in favor of a

review. Final rule 210.45(a) similarly

provides that the Commission must

grant a request for oral argument in

connection with such a review when at

least one of the participating

Commissioners votes in favor of such

argument.2