Department of Energy May 26, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this Final Rule, the Commission revises the contract reporting requirements for those natural gas pipelines that fall under the Commission's jurisdiction pursuant to section 311 of the Natural Gas Policy Act or section 1(c) of the Natural Gas Act. The Final Rule revises Sec. 284.126(b) and replaces Form No. 549Intrastate Pipeline Annual Transportation Report with the new Form No. 549DQuarterly Transportation and Storage Report for Intrastate Natural Gas and Hinshaw Pipelines. The Final Rule makes changes so as to increase the reporting frequency from annual to quarterly, include certain additional types of information and cover storage transactions as well as transportation transactions, establish a procedure for the Form No. 549D reports to be filed in a uniform electronic format and posted on the Commission's Web site, and hold that those reports must be public and may not be filed with information redacted as privileged. The Commission is also modifying its policy concerning periodic reviews of the rates charged by section 311 and Hinshaw pipelines to extend the cycle for such reviews from 3 years to 5 years.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is amending the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulation (DEAR) Subchapters EGeneral Contracting Requirements, FSpecial Categories of Contracting, and GContract Management to make changes to conform to the FAR, remove out-of-date coverage, and to update references. Today's rule does not alter substantive rights or obligations under current law.