ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of Canadian gas in California which has been, and presently remains, the largest export market presently for Canadian gas exports. The link between Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PGandE) gas customers and Canadian producers is the Alberta-California Pipeline Project. Pacific Gas Transmission Company (PGT) was formed as a PGandE subsidiary company to build and operate the US interstate portion of the pipeline from the Canadian border in northern Idaho to the California-Oregon border. In 1975, the Canadian government imposed a uniform border price for exported natural gas regardless of the differing transport costs to each export point and regardless of differing conditions in each US market. The Federal Power Commission held a special investigation and in 1974 revised PGT’s tariff to assert the authority to disapprove the reflection of future Canadian gas price increases in PGT’s rates in the event the price became too high.
