FERC Order 490 was a final rule by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to amend its regulations concerning the abandonment of certain sales and purchases of natural gas under Section 7(b) the Natural Gas Act (NGA) where the underlying contract has expired.
[1] The following year, an environment of more deregulation took place with the enactment of Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act of 1989.
Grace v. El Paso Natural Gas Company, FERC made the following statement:[4]Order No.
At a minimum, the Commission should investigate the types of serious allegations presented here by the complainant and render a decision based on the substantive merits.
As a practical matter, in the absence of such investigation, many small producers effectively will have no remedy of any kind in the event of such alleged pipeline conduct, because a contract lawsuit will be financially burdensome, if not impossible.