根据伊丽莎白·埃尔金（Elizabeth Elkin）、詹妮弗·A·德卢希（Jennifer A. Dlouhy）和诺琳·S·马利克（Naureen S. Malik）的报道，美国燃油零售商和营销机构警告称：如果联邦监管机构批准一项允许石油管道运营商与客户自由协商费用的计划，消费者将面临更高的能源价格。
By Elizabeth Elkin, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Naureen S. Malik US fuel retailers and marketers are warning that consumers face higher energy prices if a federal regulator approves a plan that would let oil pipeline operators freely negotiate fees with their customers.
据熟悉该计划的人士透露（这些人士要求匿名，因为该计划尚未公开），这项新政策将允许输送石油、汽油和柴油的管道运营商与客户单独签订协议。这样的举措将彻底改变国内石油管道运输费用的定价机制。目前，管道运输费用通常基于通货膨胀指数进行设定，并受到价格上限的约束；不过，在某些情况下，负责监管这些管道的联邦能源监管委员会（FERC）可以批准采用市场化的定价方式。
The prospective policy would allow operators of pipelines that carry oil, gasoline and diesel to strike individual deals, according to people familiar with the initiative who asked not to be named because it’s not been made public. Such a move would be a fundamental shift in the way so-called shipping rates through intrastate oil pipelines are set. Current rates generally reflect an inflation-based index and are subject to price ceilings, although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees the pipelines, can authorize market-based rates in some circumstances.
据这些人士称，FERC主席劳拉·斯威特（Laura Swett）在制定该提案过程中发挥了主导作用。该提案需要获得FERC五名委员中至少三人的支持才能正式进入立法程序。FERC尚未对此事发表评论。
FERC Chairman Laura Swett is playing a lead role in developing the proposal, the people said. It would need the support of at least three of the agency’s five commissioners to advance in a formal rulemaking process. FERC didn’t immediately comment on the matter.
全国便利店协会（NATO）、旅行中心及卡车停靠站协会（NATO）以及燃油营销机构SIGMA警告称，这一政策会将定价权掌握在少数几家管道公司手中。他们认为，运输成本的上升最终会通过提高油价转嫁给消费者——尤其是在特朗普政府努力遏制因伊朗冲突而飙升的石油、汽油和柴油价格的情况下。
The National Association of Convenience Stores, travel center and truck stop group NATSO, and fuel marketers group SIGMA warn that such a move would put pricing power into the hands of a few pipeline companies. Increased shipping costs could then be passed on to consumers through higher prices at the pump, they argue — even as the Trump administration works to curb oil, gasoline and diesel costs that have soared this year amid the conflict with Iran.
这些组织在周三致斯威特及其他FERC委员的信中表示：“我们非常确信，这一政策将给全国范围内的柴油和汽油价格带来显著的上涨压力，而此时联邦政府正在采取特殊措施试图降低这些价格。”
“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 said in a letter to Swett and her fellow FERC commissioners on Wednesday.
“除了管道运营商，我们很难在整个燃料价值链中找出任何利益相关方”会支持这一举措，他们表示。
“Other than pipelines, we are hard-pressed to identify any stakeholder in the entire fuel value chain” that would support the move, they said.
联邦能源监管委员会（FERC）负责监管州际贸易中通过管道运输石油和其他液体燃料，以确保费率合理。然而，围绕石油和液体燃料的规则变更相对罕见。近年来，由于人工智能热潮导致电力需求增长，该机构一直专注于电力市场改革。
FERC has oversight over transportation of oil and other liquid fuels via pipelines in interstate commerce to ensure reasonable rates. However, rule changes around oil and liquid fuels are relatively rare. The agency has been preoccupied in recent years with power market reform as electricity demand grows due to the artificial intelligence boom.