Section 42.06.430 - General provisions as to accounts, records, and reportsTo the extent necessary to the performance of the duties of the commission as provided in this chapter,
(1) the commission by regulation shall, for the purposes of this section, classify pipeline facilities, and may designate the pipeline facilities or groups of pipeline facilities within the state that constitute a pipeline system for the purposes of this section;(2) the commission may by regulation prescribe a uniform system of accounts for any classification of pipeline facilities which best represents and clearly reveals the investment, revenues, direct operating costs and other expenses of the subject classification of facilities, and may prescribe the manner in which the accounts and supporting records are kept in order to clearly show the investment, revenues, and costs pertaining to the subject facilities or to a pipeline system constituting a part of it; accounts shall be maintained on the calendar year basis unless the commission specifically authorizes the maintenance of accounts on the basis of a fiscal year other than the calendar year;(3) the commission may by regulation require a pipeline carrier or affiliated interest engaged in activities relating to pipelines to establish and maintain as part of its system of accounts continuing property records showing, as to property units which are actually being used in pipeline activity in this state, the year of placement in service, original cost and current location, and, as to a pipeline system, accounts and records in a manner showing, on a current basis, the original cost of the system in the state and related reserves for depreciation; from time to time the commission shall determine the proper and adequate rates of depreciation for each major class of property of an oil or gas pipeline facility;(4) the pipeline carrier shall keep its accounts for its pipeline facilities located in this state separate from any accounts relating to any other business (including another pipeline facilities business, or a subsidiary business) it engages in, directly or indirectly; except as the commission provides, property, expense or revenue used in or derived from the other business may not be considered in establishing the rates and charges of the facility;(5) the pipeline carrier shall keep books, accounts, papers, and records required by this chapter or by regulations adopted by the commission under this chapter in an office in this state and may not remove them from the state except upon written authority by the commission;(6) for pipelines subject to the Interstate Commerce Act or the Natural Gas Act, the uniform system of accounts and manner of maintaining them and the property records kept and maintained shall, where considered practicable by the commission, be the same as required under regulations prescribed by the applicable federal agency; however, where federal law permits a pipeline carrier to consolidate its reporting for more than one pipeline in which it has an ownership interest, the commission shall require the reports to be made on an individual pipeline basis for any pipeline located wholly or in part in the state;(7) within 90 days after the close of its authorized annual accounting period, or within additional time granted by the commission for good cause shown, a pipeline carrier shall file a verified annual report with the commission; the annual report must consist of the following:(A) for a pipeline subject to the Interstate Commerce Act or 15 U.S.C. 717 - 717w (Natural Gas Act), a copy of the annual report as filed with the appropriate federal agency under the applicable Act, and, for other pipelines, a report of general corporation information and financial statements in the same general format as the report of pipelines of the same classification subject to the jurisdiction of the appropriate federal agency;(B) in the same general format as the report referred to in (A) of this paragraph, a statement of income and investment applicable to pipelines in this state, and a statement of investment, revenues, direct operating costs and other expenses, detailed in accordance with the uniform system of accounts to be applied under this chapter, for each pipeline system designated by the commission under (1) of this section; and(C) such additional accounts and information as may be required under (2) of this section;(8) the commission may require such additional accounts and information as may be necessary.Amended by SLA 2011, ch. 8,sec. 42, eff. 5/10/2011.