Announced Action for July 8, 2005

Commission approval of petition to reopen and set aside order: Following a public comment period, the Commission has approved a petition by Entergy-Koch, LLC (EKLP) to reopen and set aside an existing order in Docket No. C-3998. The order, dated January 31, 2001, establishes procedures for Entergy and EKLP to follow regarding Entergy’s procurement of natural gas transportation services to carry natural gas to any electric power generating facility or local natural gas distribution facility that uses, distributes, stores, or transports natural gas, and is owned, operated, or controlled by an Entergy subsidiary that is subject to a state regulator’s rules governing the recovery cost of buying the relevant product.

In its petition, EKLP stated that Paragraph II of the Commission order was intended “to create a competitive, transparent process to make it easier for regulators to detect whether Entergy purchased gas supplies . . . at inflated prices or a level of service that is above that necessary for effective operation, in the wake of the joint venture that gave Entergy a 50 percent interest in Gulf South,” a major natural gas transportation supplier in Louisiana and Mississippi. The respondents accordingly petitioned the FTC to reopen and modify the order because: 1) Entergy and EKLP have fully complied with its terms; 2) EKLP sold Gulf South to TGT Pipeline, LLC on December 29, 2004, eliminating Entergy’s indirect 50 percent ownership in Gulf South; and 3) Entergy no longer has any ownership interest in or control over Gulf South, so it no longer has any arguable incentive to pay inflated natural gas transportation prices to Gulf South. Moreover, with the sale of Gulf South, EKLP no longer can ensure that Gulf South posts on its Electronic Bulletin Board, as required by Paragraphs II.C.1.d and II.C.2.d. Consequently, it stated that there is no longer a basis for the remedy contained in the order. Through the action announced today, the Commission has approved the petition.

The Commission vote approving the company’s petition to reopen and set aside the order was 5-0. (FTC Docket No. C-3998; the staff contact is Elizabeth A. Piotrowski, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2623; see press releases dated January 31, 2001 and March 8, 2005.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.