2204(g), these findings support the ultimate conclusion that there is a lack of "effective competition" in Pennsylvania's retail natural gas supply market at this time. Report to the General Assembly at 67. We, therefore, convened the Natural Gas Stakeholders Group, named “SEARCH,” to explore avenues for increasing competition. The work and report of that stakeholders' working group is detailed in our Final Order and Action Plan (“SEARCH Order” or “Action Plan”) issued in September 2008. We concluded that there were a number of steps which the Commission could take to help promote the development of competition in the retail markets for natural gas supply in the Commonwealth. Accordingly, we initiated this rulemaking with the goal of nurturing a robust retail market for natural gas. Action Plan at 7. Specifically, this rulemaking addresses five issues related to the duties, rights, and obligations of NGDCs. Those areas are as follows: Reformulate the NGDCs’ “price to compare” to better reflect all costs related to natural gas supply and procurement. Establish permanent rules for NGDC purchase of receivables programs. Ensure that the release, assignment or transfer of capacity by an NGDC is nondiscriminatory and at the applicable contract rate. Change the handling of costs related to NGDCs’ competition activities. Allow NGDCs to recover the cost of their annual regulatory assessments under Section 510 of the Public Utility Code via an automatic adjustment surcharge. The Proposed Rulemaking Order was entered on March 27, 2009, and was published on July 11, 2009, in the Pennsylvania Bulletin at 39 Pa.B. 3461. The order established a 45-day comment period. Comments were filed by IRRC and other interested parties.
term “basic natural gas supply service” the existing term “basic services” as already defined in Section 62.72 of the Code is sufficient and will bring clarification as to what is includable in the POR programs. Moreover, as stated by EAPA, we believe that the same definitions set forth in the current regulations should be used in this final-form regulation. Accordingly, the definition of the terms “NGDC,” “PTC” and “SOLR” in the final-form regulation will be consistent with the current definitions set forth in Sections 62.72, 62.80 and 62.101 of the Code, respectively. Lastly, IRRC suggested that we provide descriptions or examples of the costs to be included under the definition of “purchased gas cost.” However, this suggestion is now moot since we have deleted the term “purchased gas cost” from the final form regulation. Section 62.223- Price to Compare Proposed Rulemaking Order Comments IRRC noted that in the order, we state that we are requiring NGDCs to adjust their purchased gas costs monthly to better reflect market fluctuations. IRRC further noted that several commenters, such as the OCA and UGI, do not believe that this proposed regulation complies with 66 Pa. C.S. § 1307(f)(1)(ii) which states, in part: “In the that the natural gas distribution company adjusts rates more frequently than quarterly, it shall offer retail gas customers a fixed-rate option which recovers natural gas costs over a 12-month period, subject to a reconciliation…” IRRC suggested that we should explain how the proposed regulation complies with this statutory section. The OCA and UGI similar concerns in their comments. See OCA Comments, p. 5; UGI Comments, pp. 5-8.