Opinion ID: 531196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the gic policy

Text: 153 The Commission issued GIC guidelines, like the cost recovery mechanism, as a policy statement, not a firm rule; as the Commission acknowledges, it has not fully articulated how the GIC will work. The State Intervenors assert that the policy is arbitrary and capricious because it is not clear how a customer will enforce a pipeline's obligation to deliver the gas for which it has paid. Meanwhile, the Pipelines argue that the GIC policy simply replicates the invalid CD reduction provision of Order No. 436, because it allows a customer to reduce its level of firm sales demand. The Commission is apparently dealing with these objections to the policy in individual proceedings, see, e.g., Transwestern Pipeline Co., 43 FERC p 61,240, reh'g denied in part, 44 FERC p 61,164 (1988), appeal docketed, No. 88-1046 (D.C.Cir.). When it resolves its position, review may be sought by any party aggrieved. Until such time as the GIC policy precipitates a concrete case on a settled record, however, it presents no issue fit for, and imposes no hardship that could be averted by, judicial review.