RCA holds pipeline regs workshop
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has scheduled a public workshop on Aug. 16 to solicit comments on a revised draft of proposed simplified regulations for pipeline tariffs. The workshop came as the latest step in an initiative started in 2005 designed to reduce the regulatory burden associated with some simple common carrier pipelines. Under existing regulations, the complex tariff regulations that apply to pipelines that carry products for several shippers also apply to lines that, for example, only carry products for the pipeline owner.
The commission originally envisaged the introduction of two or more classes of pipeline, with simplified regulation for a class such as lines that carry only the line owner’s products. But that concept has evolved into a simplified tariff filing procedure that may apply to any pipeline, if a tariff has not been established for that pipeline or by RCA approval. A procedure to protect the interests of would-be third party users of a pipeline would swing into effect, in the event of a third party request for pipeline use.
A working group from BP, Marathon, Tesoro, Chevron and the State of Alaska prepared a draft of the proposed new regulations and, at a public meeting in April, RCA decided to issue the draft regulations for public review. But the commission staff subsequently noticed several “drafting deficiencies” in the proposed regulations, and the commission decided to schedule the Aug. 16 workshop “for proponents of the joint consensus regulations to review revisions to the proposed regulations and respond to staff questions regarding the proposal.”
—Alan Bailey
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