American Gas - June 2013 - (Page 20)

original proposal called for capping annual investments at 3 percent of a utility’s revenue, but that was negotiated down to 2 percent. The bill also makes it more economically feasible to extend gas lines to rural and underserved areas by lengthening the mandated payback period in such regions from three years to up to 20 years. “This is designed to increase customer access to a product that by most estimates is projected to be affordable for several years to come,” said Roeder. The legislation is expected to bring other benefits to the state, as well. For example, with the acceleration of improvement work, utilities and construction companies are likely to ramp up hiring. “Throughout the process of advancing this legislation, we’ve really seen it as being something of a jobs bill,” said Roeder. Ultimately, he says, the legislation represents “a good balance that considers the impact on customers while giving utilities a tool to more accurately plan for the safety and reliability projects that need to be done.” —Peter Haapaniemi other 20 percent being deferred until the next rate case, which must be filed within seven years. In essence, the law allows the utility to recover some measure of costs as improvement work proceeds. In designing the legislation, proponents drew on similar efforts in other states, carefully following developments via AGA’s state-legislative reports and discussions with the state affairs staff. Leveraging the work done in other state capitals made sense, because “even though each state has its own unique political issues, we all have similar operations and capital issues in maintaining our systems,” said Michael Roeder, vice president of Government Affairs and Communications at the Evansville-based Vectren utility. The Indiana legislation moved through the state legislature in just four months, helped along by a few compromises. For example, the Live Locating Locate Live Gas Mains and Plastic Service Lines From Meter To Main Meeting All of Your PiPeline Service needS: • • • • • NO Blow By Locate Sewer Laterals & Cross Bores From Above Ground Engineering Survey/GIS Pipeline Integrity Field Services Project Management 61 6 -392-593 8 HollandEngineering.com Since 1956 800.346.1956 WWW.JAMESONLLC.COM 20 AmericAn GAs june 2013 AmericanGas_ad_sketch.indd 1 1/23/13 3:27 PM http://WWW.JAMESONLLC.COM http://www.HollandEngineering.com http://www.HollandEngineering.com http://WWW.JAMESONLLC.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - June 2013

American Gas - June 2013
Contents
President’s Message
Subject Index
Safety: It Takes a Village
Digest
Issues
Update
Need to Know
Need to Know
By the Numbers
Places
On the Market
State House
Elm Street
The Calm Before the Storms
Profile 28
2013 AGA Membership Directory
Jobs
Buyer’s Guide
Marketplace
Headway

American Gas - June 2013