natural gas pipelines (Docket No. RM96-1-000). The rule would adopt the 140 standards recently filed by the Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB).
The proposal calls for a standard Internet connection between pipelines and customers, to eliminate the disparity in procedures and interfaces that have caused confusion to date. The FERC noted the need for additional standardization, however, and set a September 30, 1996, deadline for GISB and the industry to submit further proposals (em such as, to expand Internet service to include all electronic information provided by the pipelines.
Commissioner Donald F. Santa called the action "another step on the road to the complex task of simplifying pipeline business practices" that began with Order 636. (em LB t
News items by Lori A. Burkhart, an associate legal editor of PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY, and Joseph F. Schuler, Jr., associate editor.