§ 37-3-201 — Limit on natural gas storage; sale of excess; rates; removal of gas for purposes of evading article prohibited

Wyoming § 37-3-201

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming
• Title 37: Public Utilities
• Ch. 3: RATES, INTERCHANGE OF SERVICES AND SAFETY
• Art. 2: NATURAL GAS STORAGE LIMITS AND RATES

Text

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (b) of this
section, no natural gas utility shall include in its rates any
charge for any gas maintained in storage in excess of the
greater of the amount of stored gas needed to create storage
conditions capable of establishing delivery of two and seventy-
five hundredths (2.75) times the average annual consumption of
natural gas by the tariff customers of that natural gas utility
for the immediately preceding three (3) calendar years except
the commission may establish a lower limit on the amount of gas
in storage upon which a natural gas utility can earn a rate of
return or the commission may establish a higher limit on the
amount of gas in storage upon which a natural gas utility can
earn a rate of return if doing so will reduce rates to customers
or prevent likely natural gas shortages or enable the utility to
meet peaking requirements.
(b) Any natural gas held in storage in excess of the limit
specified in subsection (a) of this section shall be included in
the gas sold to the utility's Wyoming tariff customers in a
manner and at rates as determined by the commission. The
commission may include in the gas to be sold to the tariff
customers gas upon which no rate of return has been received
provided that the inclusion is in the public interest and is
requested by the utility. To the extent excess gas in storage
on which a rate of return has been received is available, at
least twenty-five percent (25%) of the gas sold to the tariff
customers shall be from that excess storage unless the utility
chooses to include a higher percentage. The utility shall be
permitted to earn a rate of return on the excess gas in storage
until the gas is sold to customers as provided by this
subsection.
(c) No natural gas may be removed from storage or from the
rate base for the purposes of evading the requirements of this
article.
(d) No natural gas held in storage upon which the utility
has earned a rate of return shall be sold outside the Wyoming
service territory of the utility except by order of the
commission after public hearing.
(e) Any payment made pursuant to a take or pay contract
for gas not taken due to any provision of this act may not be
included in any natural gas tariff approved by the public
service commission.
(f) For the purposes of this article the public service
commission may treat utilities which share storage facilities
and are subsidiaries controlled by the same company as a single
natural gas utility.
(g) No provision of this bill shall be implemented unless
the public service commission determines that such
implementation will not cause increased rates for Wyoming
consumers resulting from adverse federal income tax
consequences.
(h) No provision of this article shall be implemented
unless the public service commission determines that the
resulting tariff rates will be lower and more in the public
interest than the tariff rates which the commission may put into
effect through commission action on any pending application
before the commission addressing natural gas storage.