Annual Charge Filing Procedures for Natural Gas Pipelines

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) is proposing to amend its regulations to revise the filing requirements for natural gas pipelines that choose to recover Commission-assessed annual charges through an annual charge adjustment (ACA) clause. Currently, natural gas pipelines utilizing an ACA clause must make a tariff filing to reflect a revised ACA unit charge authorized by the Commission for that fiscal year. In order to reduce the regulatory burden on these pipelines, the Commission proposes to eliminate this annual filing requirement. In its place, the Commission proposes to require natural gas pipelines utilizing an ACA clause to incorporate the Commission-authorized annual charge unit rate by reference to that rate, as published on the Commission's Web site located at http://www.ferc.gov.