FERC extending TAPS case deadline
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is giving itself four additional months to issue its initial ruling on a wide-ranging rate case involving the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner Jr. initially set June 25 as the deadline for the ruling, but is now extending the date to Oct. 31 because of “the magnitude of the record and the complexity of the issues” involved in the multi-party proceedings.
The record for the proceedings includes some 12,294 pages of transcripts from 48 days of hearings, more than 2,000 exhibits and 1,817 pages of briefs, according to Wagner.
FERC and its state counterparts in the Regulatory Commission of Alaska have been holding concurrent hearings on a range of issues related to ratemaking on the 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope to Valdez. Because the rulings will either uphold or reject several years of drastically increasing tariffs — in part or in whole — the cases are sure to have a profound impact on both the owners of the pipeline and on consumers, as well as third parties such as the State of Alaska, independent oil companies and refiners.
—Eric Lidji
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