As used in this part:

(a) Assistant Secretary means the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy or any employee of the DOE who has been delegated final decisional authority.

(b) Contested proceeding means a proceeding:

(1) Where a protest or a motion to intervene, or a notice of intervention, in opposition to an application or other requested action has been filed, or

(2) Where a party otherwise notifies the Assistant Secretary and the other parties to a proceeding in writing that it opposes an application or other requested action.

(c) Decisional employee means the Assistant Secretary, presiding officials at conferences, oral presentations or trial-type hearings, and any other employee of the DOE, including consultants and contractors, who are, or may reasonably be expected to be, involved in the decision-making process, including advising the Assistant Secretary on the resolution of issues involved in a proceeding. The term includes those employees of the DOE assisting in the conduct of trial-type hearings by performing functions on behalf of the Assistant Secretary or presiding official.

(d) DOE means the Department of Energy, of which FE is a part.

(e) DOE Act means the Department of Energy Organization Act, Public Law 95-91, 91 Stat. 565 (42 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.).

(f) FE means the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.

(g) FERC means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

(h) Interested person means a person, other than a decisional employee, whose interest in a proceeding goes beyond the general interest of the public as a whole and includes applicants, intervenors, competitors of applicants, and other individuals and organizations, including non-profit and public interest organizations, and state, local, and other public officials, with a proprietary, financial or other special interest in the outcome of a proceeding. The term does not include other federal agencies or foreign governments and their representatives, unless the agency, foreign government, or representative of a foreign government is a party to the proceeding.

(i) Natural gas means natural gas and mixtures of natural gas and synthetic natural gas, regardless of physical form or phase, including liquefied natural gas and gels primarily composed of natural gas.

(j) NGA means the Natural Gas Act of June 21, 1938, c. 556, 52 Stat. 821 (15 U.S.C. 717 et seq.).

(k) Off-the-record communication means a written or oral communication not on the record which is relevant to the merits of a proceeding, and about which the parties have not been given reasonable prior notice of the nature and purpose of the communication and an opportunity to be present during such communication or, in the case of a written communication, an opportunity to respond to the communication. It does not include communications concerned solely with procedures which are not relevant to the merits of a proceeding. It also does not include general background discussions about an entire industry or natural gas markets or communications of a general nature made in the course of developing agency policy for future general application, even though these discussions may relate to the merits of a particular proceeding.

(l) Party means an applicant, any person who has filed a motion for and been granted intervenor status or whose motion to intervene is pending, and any state commission which has intervened by notice pursuant to §590.303(a).

(m) Person means any individual, firm, estate, trust, partnership, association, company, joint-venture, corporation, United States local, state and federal governmental unit or instrumentality thereof, charitable, educational or other institution, and others, including any officer, director, owner, employee, or duly authorized representative of any of the foregoing.

(n) Presiding official means any employee of the DOE who has been designated by the Assistant Secretary to conduct any stage of a proceeding, which may include presiding at a conference, oral presentation, or trial-type hearing, and who has been delegated the authority of the Assistant Secretary to make rulings and issue orders in the conduct of such proceeding, other than final opinions and orders, orders to show cause, emergency interim orders, or conditional decisions under subpart D and orders on rehearing under subpart E.

(o) Proceeding means the process and activity, and any part thereof, instituted by FE either in response to an application, petition, motion or other filing under this part, or on its own initiative, by which FE develops and considers the relevant facts, policy and applicable law concerning the importation or exportation of natural gas and which may lead to the issuance of an order by the Assistant Secretary under subparts D and E.

(p) Small-scale natural gas export means an export of natural gas to nations with which there is not in effect a free trade agreement with the United States requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas and with which trade is not prohibited by U.S. law or policy, provided that the application for such export authority satisfies the following two criteria:

(1) The application proposes to export natural gas in a volume up to and including 51.75 billion cubic feet per year, and

(2) DOE's approval of the application does not require an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.

(q) State commission means the regulatory body of a state or municipality having jurisdiction to regulate rates and charges for the sale of natural gas to consumers within the state or municipality, or having any regulatory jurisdiction over parties involved in the import or export arrangement.

[54 FR 53531, Dec. 29, 1989, as amended at 83 FR 35119, July 25, 2018]