§3206 Gas Utility Rate Design Proposals

Summary

The Secretary must study gas utility rate design and send a report to Congress within 18 months after November 9, 1978. The Secretary must work with the Commission and give state regulators, gas companies, and gas consumers a chance to comment. The study must look at nine kinds of pricing or rate rules (for example incremental and marginal-cost pricing, taxes on end users, wellhead pricing, demand vs. commodity charges, declining block rates, interruptible service, seasonal differences, and end-user rate schedules) and how those affect six things: pipeline and local company load factors; rates for customer groups (residential, commercial, industrial); changes in total costs to consumers; demand and use; end-use patterns; and competition from other fuels. Using that study, the Secretary must create proposals to improve rate design and save gas, including the Commission’s comments. Those proposals and any law changes must go to both Houses of Congress within 6 months after the study is sent. The submission must include analyses of projected energy savings, likely changes in gas costs to consumers if the proposals went national, and effects on other parts of the Act about rate structures. The Secretary must also allow public participation while doing the study and drafting the proposals.