Industry sources say regulators are weighing a policy that would let pipeline operators cut case by case fee agreements with shippers, rather than follow today's inflation-linked formulas with ceilings. They asked not to be identified because the idea has not been publicly released.
That would represent a significant break from how shipping charges on intrastate oil pipelines are typically set. While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can already approve market-based rates in certain situations, this approach would invite more individualized pricing across lines that carry oil, gasoline and diesel.
FERC Chairman Laura Swett is leading work on the concept, according to people familiar with the effort. To move the idea into a formal rulemaking, backing from no fewer than three of the agency's five commissioners would be needed.
Swett said she feels accountable for access to plentiful, affordable energy for every household. "I take that responsibility seriously and personally because I grew up in a home where high energy prices forced us to make difficult choices," she said. "I do not want others to bear that burden. I am not surprised that some are attempting to distort my position." She set up an oil task force within FERC whose charge is to "engage with all stakeholders about a variety of potential reforms," while noting, "such reforms are not on my agenda for this year."
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On Wednesday, the National Association of Convenience Stores, NATSO, and SIGMA warned the shift would concentrate pricing power with a small number of pipeline companies. "We are highly confident that it would impose significant upward pressure on the prices consumers pay for diesel and gasoline throughout the country, at the very moment the federal government is taking extraordinary measures to bring those prices down," the groups wrote to Swett and the other commissioners. They added, "Other than pipelines, we are hard-pressed to identify any stakeholder in the entire fuel value chain" that would support the change.
Backers see a different benefit: more investment. "At a time when high fuel prices strain American families, pipelines move America's fuel for pennies on the gallon - a small fraction of the pump price with a big role in U.S. energy security," said John Stoody of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association. "A simpler federal process could reduce regulatory delays and encourage investment in America's pipeline system, while keeping rates fair and fuel delivery reliable."
FERC oversees oil and other liquid fuel transportation by pipeline in interstate commerce to ensure rates are reasonable, and has rarely updated oil and liquids rules in recent years as it has focused on power market reforms amid AI driven electricity demand growth. The outcome here could shape shipping costs and, the retail groups argue, what drivers pay at the pump - even as the Trump administration seeks to restrain oil, gasoline and diesel prices that have climbed this year during the conflict with Iran. The immediate tell for markets: whether three commissioners line up behind a rulemaking and what Swett's oil task force hears from stakeholders.
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