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FERC will work with all proposed projects Director of Office of Energy Projects at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission tells RDC Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act very specific Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The siting, construction and operation of interstate gas pipelines in interstate commerce are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“Normally we do this under a statute called the Natural Gas Act, but this being Alaska, of course — it's different. And there's a special statute … the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act of 1976,” Dan Adamson, director of the FERC's Office of Energy Projects, told the Resource Development Council's annual conference in Anchorage Nov. 16.
Under the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Act, President Carter approved a pipeline route from Alaska to the Lower 48, Congress affirmed that choice and then the FERC issued a conditional certificate, “really an initial first step in the regulatory process to approve the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System.
“And then as you all know the gas market changed. The project was put on hold as was the FERC process.”
That's the history, Adamson said.
“Where are we going? I think the commission is strongly committed to processing any kind of application for the revived ANGTS or any other proposal as expeditiously as possible.”
This is a complicated project, and won't happen overnight, he said: “But we will do our best to move it along quickly.
“We'll also do our best to remain above the fray of the competing routes... We don't think it's our role or really anyone in the government's role to decide which route is best. That's going to be decided in response to a lot of factors, first and foremost, the market test.”
The FERC is often, Adamson said, “confronted with different proposals that overlap to some degree. We do not try to figure out which one is best.
“What we often do, is we approve both of them and then one of them, or sometimes none of them, gets built. So we find that saves time and lets market forces determine what pipelines will be built.”
ANGTA statute old If the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System proposal is revived, “then we would like to consider that under the ANGTA statute. If we get other proposals, we would likely consider those under the Natural Gas Act.”
But, Adamson said, one of the challenges both the FERC and the project sponsor face it that the ANGTA doesn't speak to today's technology, “so whatever application we get is going to be substantially different. It's going to be better than the application that we received over 20 years ago.”
The commission is currently “looking to see how much discretion we have to approve a project that departs from the specifications of ANGTA and also the president's decision under ANGTA.”
Under ANGTA, what was designated was not just the route, but how many compressors there would be, where they would be, what type of technology would be used. “It also specified … what is now an outmoded rate-setting regime,”Adamson said.
The commission is investigating whether it has “the authority under current law to essentially approve significant differences in that certificate, in that technology?”
Commission moving now Rather than waiting until applications are received, the commission is looking at issues around the law now, Adamson said: “Are there any ambiguities of the law? Is there something that could be done to clarify the law so that we can process the certificate quicker?”
Commission staff is now preparing a report on these issues for the Senate Energy Committee, he said, with the goal of getting these issues out on the table by the end of the year.
Adamson also said that under the ex parte rule once an application is filed the commission can only base its decision on “material that's submitted in the record in writing or at a public conference.”The decision can't be based on information picked up after the application is filed by “wandering around talking to people, which would be a normal way to find things out.”
Because of that, Adamson encouraged project sponsors to take advantage of the period before the application is filed: “talk to us as much as possible. Call us. Write us. E-mail us. … Invite commission staff to come out to Alaska and see things on the ground, see what your reality is, because we understand that it is difficult for an agency far away in Washington to always be in touch with what's going on.”
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