Today, November 19, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it had approved an order (RP10-148-000) instituting a section 5 proceeding in respect to Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited Partnership (Great Lakes) to determine whether the rates charged by Great Lakes are just and reasonable.
The FERC instituted this proceeding after reviewing Great Lake’s 2008 Form 2 filed in April 2009. The FERC is also instituting proceedings against two other pipeline companies, Northern Natural Gas Company and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC.
The FERC directed that an initial decision be issued within 47 weeks of the designation of a presiding judge, consistent with the Administrative Law Judge’s track II time frame for hearings. The FERC also indicated that the expedited schedule is not intended to foreclose any of the pipelines, its customers and FERC staff from reaching a reasonable settlement.
We are currently analyzing the matter and cannot predict the impact to Great Lakes at this time.
TC PipeLines, LP (the “Partnership”) owns a 46.45 per cent general partner interest in Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited Partnership (“Great Lakes”). The other 53.55 per cent partner interest in Great Lakes is owned by subsidiaries of TransCanada Corporation.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This Form 8-K may include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of TC PipeLines, LP. Words such as “believes,” “expects,” “intends,” “forecasts,” “projects,” “cannot predict” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on the Partnership’s current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Partnership. These statements reflect the Partnership’s current views with respect to future events. The Partnership assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof. Important factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from the Partnership's current expectations include the risk of a prolonged slowdown in growth or decline in the U.S. economy or the risk of delay in growth recovery in the U.S. economy, regulatory decisions, particularly those of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the ability of Great Lakes and Northern Border to recontract their available capacity on competitive terms, the Partnership’s ability to identify and/or consummate accretive growth opportunities from TransCanada or others, the ability to access capital and credit markets with competitive rates and terms, decisions by the operator of Northern Border, Great Lakes, North Baja and Tuscarora, the failure of a shipper on any one of the Partnership’s pipelines to perform its contractual obligations, supply of natural gas in the Western Canada sedimentary basin and in competing basins, such as the Rocky Mountains, future demand for natural gas, overcapacity in the industry, success of other pipelines competing with Northern Border and Great Lakes by bringing competing U.S. sourced gas to Northern Border’s and Great Lakes’ markets, and other risks inherent in the transportation of natural gas as discussed in the Partnership’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Partnership’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and the Partnership’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2009.
