FERC Meeting: Notice of Fourth Interstate Natural Gas Facility-Planning Seminar:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Energy Projects will hold the fourth in a series of public meetings around the country for the purposes of exploring and enhancing strategies for constructive public participation in the earliest stages of natural gas facility planning. This meeting will be held in Seattle, Washington on Thursday, April 26, 2001. FERC is inviting interstate natural gas companies; Federal, state and local agencies; landowners and non-governmental organizations with an interest in developing a new way of doing business to join in this effort.

Participants will discuss the facility planning process, the potential benefits of pipeline facilities, and ways of improving the environmental review process for interstate natural gas pipeline projects. The staff of the Commission's Office of Energy Projects will give a briefing on the results of our first three seminars in Albany, NY, Chicago, IL, and Tampa, FL, including problems that were identified and potential solutions that were offered in the seminars.

The meeting will be held at the Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98101 (click here for a map and directions). The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and finish at 2:30 p.m. If you plan to attend, please email lloyd.ulrich@rspa.dot.gov by April 20, 2001. Or, you can respond via facsimile to Pennie Lewis-Partee at 202-208-0353. Please include in the response the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all attendees from your organization. FERC will send an acknowledgment of your request. Please consider issues and/or questions you would like to have addressed at the meetings and email them to FERC. Additional meetings are being considered in the Boston, Massachusetts/Portland, Maine area in May/June, 2001, and in the Reno, Nevada or Salt Lake City, Utah area in July/August, 2001. Comments on these proposed future meetings can also be directed to FERC as described above.