Legal Resources 
Order
No. 637
Final Rule, Order Denying Rehearing Concerning Regulation of Short-term Natural Gas Transportation Services
In Order
No. 637 
,
the Commission amends its regulations in response to the growing development
of more competitive markets for natural gas and the transportation of natural
gas. In the rule,
the Commission is revising its current regulatory framework to improve the efficiency
of the market and provide captive customers with the opportunity to reduce their
cost of
holding long-term pipeline capacity while continuing to protect against the exercise
of market power. The rule revises Commission pricing policy to enhance the efficiency
of
the market by waiving price ceilings for short-term released capacity for a two
year period and permitting pipelines to file for peak/off-peak and term differentiated
rate structures.
It effects changes in regulations relating to scheduling procedures, capacity
segmentation and pipeline penalties to improve the competitiveness and efficiency
of the interstate
pipeline grid. It narrows the right of first refusal to remove economic biases
in the current rule, while still protecting captive customers' ability to resubscribe
to long-term
capacity. And, it improves the Commission's reporting requirements to provide
more transparent pricing information and permit more effective monitoring of
the market.
Order No. 637 
Office of Economic Policy papers cited in Order No. 637:
- The Governance of Energy Displacement Network Oligopolies
(1,726KB) (Note - the pagination in the PDF document is not identical to that in the original document.)
