Pictured in this Aug. 15, 2024, photo is the West Virginia Public Service Commission building in Charleston.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file
The West Virginia Public Service Commission has created a task force consisting largely of gas and oil industry representatives and charged it with making recommendations to change the state’s rules that govern gas utilities and gas pipeline safety.
The PSC asserted an update of the gas rules was necessary in an order by citing an Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued on his first full day in office in January requiring state agencies to review their rules.
Morrisey claimed in the executive order that “outdated, overly complex, and inconsistent rules have created undue burdens on West Virginia's workforce and businesses†and directed cabinet secretaries and department heads to make recommendations regarding any legislation that could be “simplified, clarified, modernized, or eliminated.â€
The executive order required the recommendations to be made within 100 days, a period that ended April 24 — the same day as the PSC’s order creating the task force.
Since then, eight gas distribution companies and other gas service providers have notified the PSC they would participate in the task force, along with the , after the PSC said it was seeking industry representatives for it.
The task force is poised to roll back the state’s gas utilities and gas pipeline safety rules in line with Morrisey’s executive order, with one participant, the Mountaineer Gas Company, reporting in a filing Wednesday the task force’s first meeting was held last week.
An industry-heavy task force
The PSC named its staff, , and Cardinal Natural Gas Company as initial members of the task force in its April 24 order, also inviting the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas and industry to join, in addition to industry representatives.
The PSC required that within five days of an initial meeting to be held within 30 days of its April 24 order, the chair of the task force should file a report with the PSC noting the meeting was held, a proposed schedule for task force meetings and a date for a final task force report on proposed amendments to the gas rules.
Mountaineer Gas said the first task force meeting was held May 23, but no proposed schedule for task force meetings or final task force report date were listed as filed with the PSC as of Thursday afternoon.
NRG Energy, a Pittsburgh-based, fossil fuel-fired energy services company
Mountaineer Gas, a Charleston-based gas distribution company
Alabama-headquartered Diversified Energy Company, one of the nation’s largest gas and oil well owners
Hope Gas Inc., a Morgantown-based gas distribution company
Union Oil & Gas, Inc., a Charleston-based gas distribution company
West Virginia Small Public Utilities Association
Canaan Valley Gas Company, a Randolph County-based gas distribution company
Cardinal Natural Gas Company, a Washington County, Virginia-based gas distribution company
CNX Resources Corp., a Washington County, Pennsylvania-based gas developer and producer
Renegade Energy Advisors LLC, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based energy industry compliance and modeling provider
Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, an industry trade group
West Virginia Energy Users Group, an association of energy-intensive industrial customers receiving gas from Mountaineer Gas and Hope Gas
The Consumer Advocate Division, an independent arm of the PSC charged with representing the interests of residential ratepayers, also filed a petition to intervene in the case.
PSC operational, safety requirements are wide-ranging
The state’s gas rules are wide-ranging. Made effective in 2018, the rules govern how utilities report rates and charges, require utilities to file annual financial and statistical reports and mandate production and transmission equipment maps and records. They allow the PSC to direct utility management audits, oversee meter, customer relations and engineering requirements, and set service quality standards.
State gas rules also encompass safety requirements, including mandates to address odorous gas and report incidents involving pipeline facilities that cause serious injuries resulting in hospitalization or death or estimated property damage of $50,000 or more.
Under state gas rule, all operators must notify the PSC of any “important additions†to its system at least 30 days before starting construction, defining “important additions†as a single project, other than well drilling, involving an estimated expense of at least $250,000 for transmission pipeline construction, at least $50,000 for distribution pipeline construction or an amount equal to at least 10% of the total value of the system in service, whichever is less.
The rules are replete with definitions of key terms that include hazardous liquids, pipeline facilities and standard distribution pressure.
They also define the scope of field inspection requirements and mandate a review of an operator’s maintenance and emergency procedures at least once every 18 months.
The state’s gas rules are available to view at .
The deadline to file a participation notice was May 9, but the PSC is still taking comments on the case at or addressed to Public Service Commission of West Virginia, Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 81 2, Charleston, West Virginia 25323. All filings should reference the case number, 25-0401-G-GI.
