§717p Joint Boards

Summary

The Commission can send any issue it handles to a joint board made up of members chosen from each State affected. Those boards have the same powers and duties as a Commission member holding a hearing. The Commission makes the rules for how the board works, picks the members from people nominated by each State’s commission or governor, can reject nominees and ask for new ones, can pay members’ expenses, and can cancel the referral if needed. The Commission may meet and hold joint hearings with State commissions about rates, costs, accounts, charges, practices, and rules for natural-gas companies. It must share helpful reports and information with State commissions. If it does not harm its work, the Commission can also lend expert witnesses to a State on request, but the State must repay their pay and travel costs, and those payments go back to the same budget used to pay them.