[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 135 (Friday, July 15, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 40941-40943]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-13908]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Parts 35, 131, 154, 157, 250, 281, 284, 300, 341, 344, 346, 
347, 348, 375, and 385

[Docket No. RM01-5-000]


Electronic Tariff Filings

July 6, 2005.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of additional proposals and procedures.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is making additional 
proposals, requesting comments, and establishing procedures related to 
its July 8, 2004, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (69 FR 43929) (NOPR). 
The Commission is proposing to revise its prior proposal that natural 
gas companies and public utilities file pre-existing agreements 
electronically. The Commission is proposing that only current tariffs 
and future agreements, and not pre-existing non-conforming rate 
schedules and agreements, be filed electronically. The Commission is 
proposing to permit electronic service of all initial and subsequent 
tariff filings upon the implementation of electronic tariff filing. The 
Commission is seeking comment on whether oil pipelines should utilize 
an approach to tariff filing that differs from the approach to be 
utilized in the gas pipeline and electric industries. In addition, 
Commission staff will be establishing a second technical conference in 
the next few months once the changes to the Commission's software that 
have been identified are completed. Comments on the non-regulatory text 
portion of the proposal are anticipated to be due within 60 days after 
the conference. A future notice will be issued announcing a date for a 
second technical conference to discuss the electronic tariff filing 
software to be used in compliance with the NOPR.

DATES: August 1, 2005, for comments on the proposed regulatory text, 
electronic service, and any changes to the method of filing for oil 
pipelines.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be filed electronically via the eFiling link on 
the Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov. Commenters unable to 
file comments electronically must send an original and 14 copies of 
their comments to: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of the 
Secretary, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426. Refer to the 
Comment Procedures section of the preamble of the Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking for additional information on how to file comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
H. Keith Pierce (Technical Information), Office of Markets, Tariffs, 
and Rates, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426. (202) 502-8525. [email protected].
Jamie Chabinsky (Legal Information), Office of the General Counsel, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426. (202) 502-6040. [email protected].
Bolton Pierce (Software Information), Office of Markets, Tariffs, and 
Rates, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426. (202) 502-8803. [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Notice of Additional Proposals and Procedures

    1. In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) issued on July 8, 
2004, the Commission proposed to require public utilities, gas and oil 
pipelines to file tariff and tariff related material electronically.\1\ 
Since the issuance of the NOPR, Commission staff has been working with 
industry to develop electronic tariff (eTariff) filing software that 
will meet the needs of industry, the Commission, and the public alike. 
In recognition of the complex nature of creating electronic tariff and 
rate case filing software, the Commission staff hosted a technical 
conference on June 1, 2005, to discuss the software that has been 
developed thus far.
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    \1\ Electronic Tariff Filings, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 69 
FR 43939 (July 23, 2004) FERC Stats. & Regs., Proposed Regulations ] 
32,575 (July 8, 2004) (July 8 NOPR).
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    2. Based on the results of these efforts, the Commission is 
proposing two changes to the NOPR intended to ease utilities' burdens 
in complying and to expand the efficiency of the electronic filing 
process. The Commission is proposing to exempt old, paper versions of 
agreements and tariffs that are not being revised frequently from the 
electronic filing requirement. The Commission also is proposing to 
allow participants to electronically serve tariff and tariff related 
material once electronic tariff filing is implemented. Additionally, 
the Commission is seeking comments on whether oil pipelines should 
utilize an approach to tariff filing that differs from the approach to 
be utilized in the gas pipeline and electric industries.
    3. Further, the Commission is instructing staff to establish a 
procedural schedule with respect to completion of the electronic tariff 
software. The electronic tariff software is being revised to 
incorporate, where practically feasible, functions requested by 
conference participants. Staff will hold a second technical conference 
once the eTariff filing software incorporates these changes, so that 
the industries can see a demonstration of the functional software. 
Comments on the software will likely be due 60 days after the second 
technical conference. The technical conference and comment dates will 
be announced in a subsequent notice.

Proposed Changes to the NOPR

Reduction in Compliance Obligations
    4. The Commission's July 8 NOPR proposed that regulated entities 
convert old or non-conforming paper rate schedules and agreements, for 
which an electronic version does not exist, into electronic word 
searchable sections. In light of the technical conference discussion, 
the Commission proposes to ease the burden of compliance by not 
requiring regulated entities to convert these materials into electronic 
format. However, if the materials are amended or changed and refiled, 
the Commission will require that regulated entities

[[Page 40942]]

convert the materials into electronic format and file them utilizing 
the eTariff process. The Commission further proposes that these revised 
materials will not be required to be fully word searchable since 
scanning of paper agreements into a graphic is less burdensome than 
conversion to electronic text documents. Thus, with respect to old 
contracts that are lengthy, a utility can file in graphic format 
portions of unchanged text, while filing in electronic, word searchable 
format, those sections that are, or are likely to be revised. Pipelines 
and public utilities also would be required to file an index of those 
tariffs and agreements that are not being filed as part of their 
initial baseline compliance tariffs, and would continue to abide by 
their obligations to make these tariffs and agreements available, upon 
request.\2\ As a company complies by making its electronic tariff 
filing with the index of tariffs and agreements not included in the 
electronic filing, the Commission will no longer update or maintain the 
company's paper tariff.
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    \2\ Section 4(c) of the Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. 717c(c); 
section 205(c) of the Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 824d(c), and 
section 6 of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. App. 1(6).
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    5. As applied to filings by electric utilities, all generally 
applicable tariffs, which includes the open access transmission tariffs 
(OATTs), power sales tariffs, and market-based rate tariffs, as well as 
new agreements will still need to be filed utilizing the Commission's 
eTariff software, as the July 8 NOPR proposed. However, old or non-
conforming rate schedules and agreements will not need to be converted 
unless they are revised. When such agreements and rate schedules are 
revised, electric public utilities must file the entire agreement 
utilizing the eTariff software and conform to the requirement in Order 
No. 614 that a utility filing a service agreement must file a complete 
agreement with appropriate designation.\3\
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    \3\ Designation of Electric Rate Schedule Sheets, Order No. 614, 
65 FR 18221, 18224 (April 7, 2000), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,096, at 
31,504 (2000).
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    6. As applied to gas pipelines, pipelines would have to convert and 
file their Volume No. 1 tariffs, which reflect generally available 
services, but would not have to file special rate schedules or special 
operating arrangements included in Volume No. 2 tariffs nor any 
existing negotiated rate or non-conforming service agreements that are 
not in an electronic format unless they are revised.
Electronic Service
    7. The Commission's intention is to permit utilities and pipelines 
to avail themselves of electronic service (eService) of tariff and 
related filings upon the implementation of electronic tariff filing. 
Order Nos. 653 and 653-A \4\ amended the Commission's regulations to 
provide for eService of Commission issuances and to enhance the use of 
electronic service between parties to Commission proceedings. But these 
orders did not apply to all tariff related filings. The Commission 
proposes to conform the service requirements in parts 35, 154, 300, 
341, and 385 to allow for eService of electronically filed tariffs. 
This would include first time tariff filings where no official service 
list has been established. Specifically, Sec.  385.2010 would need to 
be revised to reflect this. The Commission previously established 
August 1, 2005, as the comment date for comments related to the 
regulatory text of the July 8 NOPR. We invite commenters to alert us to 
any specific parts of the Commission's regulations, for which revisions 
were not proposed in the NOPR, that will require revision to reflect 
that eService will be permitted.\5\ Comments related to eService 
regulatory text changes should be included in comments related to the 
regulatory text of the July 8 NOPR which are due August 1, 2005.
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    \4\ Electronic Notification of Commission Issuances, Order No. 
653, 70 FR 8720 (February 23, 2005), FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,176 
(2005), order on reh'g, Order No. 653-A, 111 FERC ] 61,021 (2005).
    \5\ See, e.g., 18 CFR 154.2 (defining posting of a tariff as 
requiring the pipeline to ``mail to each affected customer and 
interested state commission a copy of the tariff, or part 
thereof'').
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Comments on Filing of Oil Pipeline Tariffs
    8. The Commission is inviting comments on whether a different 
approach is warranted to reduce the filing burden on oil pipelines as a 
result of the differences in the structure and use of oil pipeline 
tariffs. Oil pipeline tariffs are often less lengthy than gas and 
electric tariffs, focusing on specific movements between locations. The 
number of oil pipeline tariff filings is far less than gas and electric 
filings and far fewer protests are filed. The current format for 
identifying changes in oil pipeline tariffs is different, utilizing 
symbols within the tariff itself to identify changed provisions. The 
potential audience for using these tariffs also may be more limited. As 
a result, there may be less need for storing oil pipeline tariffs in a 
format that permits broad ranging text searches across a tariff and 
easy assembly of individual tariff provisions.
    9. Specifically, the Commission is seeking comments on whether oil 
pipelines should continue to file paper tariffs or whether there are 
different filing options that oil pipelines could use. Because oil 
pipeline tariffs are generally short, the Commission requests comment 
on an alternative filing approach under which oil pipelines could be 
permitted to file Adobe Acrobat (PDF) versions of their tariffs as 
attachments using the Commission's software.\6\ An oil pipeline 
adopting this option would file its entire tariff (which authorizes a 
specific movement or movements, or rules and regulations governing 
crude or refined products) each time it revises or updates that tariff. 
The filer would continue to use the existing symbol nomenclature to 
identify changes in that tariff. It also would file an updated table of 
contents in text format cross referencing the subject matter (movements 
or rules and regulations) encompassed by each of its tariffs.
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    \6\ Due to the length of gas tariffs and electric OATTs, this 
approach would not be feasible for such filings.
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    10. Adoption of such an approach, however, would mean that search 
capability across all a company's tariffs would be limited and users 
would have to download a copy of the Adobe file and use the Adobe 
Reader,\7\ or other PDF reader, to view and work with the tariff.
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    \7\ The Commission currently posts filings in Adobe Acrobat on 
its e-Library Web site. Users can obtain an Adobe reader without 
charge. http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html.
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    11. The Commission seeks specific comment on the following issues:
    (a) Should oil pipelines be allowed to continue to file in paper 
format? Does this determination need to be uniform for the oil industry 
or would it be feasible to provide this as an option to those oil 
pipelines that choose not to use the Commission's filing software? What 
impact would filing tariffs by different methods have on public access 
and research?
    (b) Would the proposed PDF alternative filing method reduce the 
difficulties oil pipelines have found using the Commission's filing 
software and would it provide sufficient information to state 
regulators, oil pipeline customers, and other users of oil pipeline 
tariffs? Specifically, commenters should address:
    (i) How important is it to be able to do electronic tariff research 
on oil pipeline rates and rules and regulations. In particular, how 
important is it to be able to do text searches across all the 
individual tariffs filed by an oil company?

[[Page 40943]]

    (ii) Should oil pipelines adopting this option also be required to 
maintain their complete tariffs on their respective Web sites for the 
benefit of their customers? How much information, in addition to 
effective tariffs, should the Web sites include, such as filed but not 
yet effective tariffs, cancelled, suspended or withdrawn tariffs? 
Should these Web sites be required to show the dates of status changes, 
FERC docket numbers and FERC order information?
    12. Comments related to the oil pipeline tariff filing approach 
should be included in comments related to the regulatory text of the 
July 8 NOPR which are due August 1, 2005.

Procedural Schedule

    13. Staff presented at the June 1, 2005, Technical Conference an 
incomplete electronic tariff data base and tariff filing system. The 
software is being improved to incorporate, where practicable, items and 
features identified at the conference. Staff will continue to develop 
the software using the ``spiral development'' methodology and consult 
with volunteer test companies. Staff will also continue to be available 
for additional software discussions or meetings with the industry. Once 
the changes to the Commission's software have been completed, a second 
technical conference will be held within a few months. Comments on the 
non-regulatory text portion of the proposal are anticipated to be due 
within 60 days after the conference. A notice will be issued announcing 
a date for the second technical conference and establishing a comment 
date.

Magalie R. Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 05-13908 Filed 7-14-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P