Before Commissioners: Pat Wood, III, Chairman; William L. Massey, Linda Breathitt, and Nora Brownell; Assignment of Firm Capacity on Upstream Interstate Pipelines

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is amending its regulations to remove Subpart H of Part 284 which requires interstate natural gas pipelines to assign to their firm shippers capacity the pipelines hold on other interstate pipelines. This requirement was a necessary part of the unbundling of interstate pipelines' gas sales from their gas transportation service required in Order No. 636. On December 14, 2000, the Commission announced a new policy under which it would no longer require pipelines to give up their capacity on other pipelines but would allow them to acquire and hold capacity on other pipelines without prior Commission approval. Since Subpart H no longer reflects the Commission policy with respect to pipelines' holding capacity on other pipelines, the Commission is removing the regulation.