§551. Regulatory designation

            A. Pursuant to Section 2(A) of Article IX of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, the assistant secretary shall be the authority to regulate natural gas and natural gas transporters and distribution companies as provided in this Chapter; provided, however, that the Louisiana Public Service Commission shall remain the authority to regulate the sale of natural gas moving by pipeline to local distributing systems for resale, and shall regulate resales by those distributing companies, for the purposes of fixing and regulating the rates and services charged and rendered by public utilities in such sale; except that those distribution companies or systems owned or operated by the governing authority of one or more political subdivisions or subject to regulation in accordance with the provisions of a home rule charter or plan of government shall be regulated, except as provided in Subsection B, hereof, by the owning or operating governing authority or as provided by such home rule charter or plan of government.

            B. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this Section, the assistant secretary shall be the authority to regulate persons engaged in the transportation of gas or who own or operate intrastate pipeline facilities for the transportation of gas. The assistant secretary shall establish by regulation minimum safety standards for pipeline facilities and the transportation of gas, and those regulations shall be consistent with the rules and regulations authorized by 49 U.S.C. 60101 et seq.

            C. The assistant secretary, as permitted by 49 U.S.C. 60105, may certify annually to the United States Department of Transportation that the state, through the office of conservation, has regulatory jurisdiction over the safety standards and practices of intrastate pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities not otherwise regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the transportation of gas and liquefied natural gas associated with those facilities.

            D. Except as provided in 49 U.S.C. 60104(c), nothing in this Section authorizes the assistant secretary to adopt or enforce safety standards for interstate gas pipeline facilities or the transportation of gas associated with those facilities.

            E. The commissioner of conservation, as permitted by 49 U.S.C. 60101 et seq., may certify annually to the United States Department of Transportation that the state, through the office of conservation, has regulatory jurisdiction over the safety standards and practices of intrastate underground gas storage facilities not otherwise regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the transportation of gas and the storage of gas at those facilities. The commissioner of conservation, as permitted by 49 U.S.C. 60101 et seq., may enter into an agency relationship with the United States Department of Transportation to enforce compliance with safety standards with respect to interstate gas storage facilities or the transportation of gas associated with those facilities.

            Added by Acts 1973, Ex.Sess., No. 16, §1, emerg. eff. Dec. 8, 1973, at 9:55 A.M. Amended by Acts 1978, No. 669, §1; Acts 1985, No. 250, §1, eff. July 6, 1985; Acts 2015, No. 332, §1; Acts 2018, No. 60, §1.