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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 151 / Tuesday, August 10, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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Table of Contents Paragraph Nos.
I. Background
II. Discussion
A. The NAESB WGQ Version 3.2 Business Practice Standards
1. Modifications to Previous Version of Standards
B. NAESBs Process
C. Adoption of Version 3.2 of the Standards
D. Required Compliance Filings
E. Implementation Schedule
III. Notice of Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards
IV. Incorporation by Reference
V. Information Collection Statement
VI. Environmental Analysis
VII. Regulatory Flexibility Act
VIII. Document Availability
IX. Effective Date and Congressional Notification

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1. In this Final Rule, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commission amends its regulations at 18 CFR 284.12 to incorporate by reference, with certain enumerated exceptions,1 the latest version Version 3.2 of business practice standards adopted by NAESBs WGQ applicable to natural gas pipelines that NAESB
reported to the Commission on August 17, 2020 in place of the currently incorporated version Version 3.1 of those business practice standards. This Final Rule requires interstate natural gas pipelines to file compliance filings with the Commission by November 12, 2021
and to comply with the standards incorporated by reference in this rule on and after June 1, 2022.
2. The implementation of these standards and regulations will promote the additional efficiency and reliability of the natural gas industries operations thereby helping the Commission to carry out its responsibilities under the Natural Gas Act NGA. Further, the implementation of these standards will enhance the natural gas industries computer security requirements.2 In addition, the implementation of these data requirements will provide additional transparency to Informational Postings websites and will improve communication standards.
3. The NAESB WGQ Version 3.2
package of standards contains revisions to the NAESB WGQ Version 3.1 package of standards. As explained further below, in response to the recommendations in the Sandia 1 As explained below, we are not incorporating by reference in this Final Rule the optional model contracts and the eTariff-related standards included in the North American Energy Standards Board NAESB Wholesale Gas Quadrant WGQ Version 3.2 package of business practice standards.
2 As explained below, NAESB has developed and adopted, in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories, a series of business practice standards to protect the natural gas industries internet security.

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National Laboratory Sandia 3 report, NAESB updated the Quadrant Electronic Delivery Mechanism EDM
Related Standards and internet Electronic Transport IET Related Standards to specifically: 1 Require the implementation of fixes or patches for known vulnerabilities as soon as reasonably practicable in coordination with other trading partners; 2 specify notification timelines to provide notice to trading partners of any systems or software that have not been updated and the potential impact of using the vulnerable system; 3 include both specific and broad adoptions of system security measures and specific notification and coordination during outages with affected trading partners;
4 maintain a minimum encryption strength of 128 bits, 5 specify that OpenPGP 4 should be used to create public and private keys for privacy and digital signature applications; 6
specify Hyper-Text Transport Protocol Secure HTTPS 5 whenever secure communication is required to protect information in transit and support overall privacy needs; 7 use the largest feasible key length consistent with implementation of current business processes; 8 state that secure websites 3 Sandia is a multidisciplinary national laboratory and federally funded research and development center for the U.S. Department of Energys DOE
National Nuclear Security Administration that supports numerous federal, state, and local government agencies, companies, and organizations.
4 OpenPGP is an encryption standard defined by the internet Engineering Task Force enabling design and implementation free of licensing fees. At present, the encryption method is generally considered the most secure.
5 HTTPS authentication encrypts username and password combinations as part of a Uniform Resource Locator address. To obtain an HTTPS
connection, a web browser must contact a trusted, commercial Certificate Authority, such as a NAESB
Authorized Certificate Authority, to obtain the web servers public key, and follow other applicable HTTPS procedures.

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should employ individual user credentials; and 9 encourage security assessments and coordination between customers, vendors, and trading partners.
4. Further, in response to industry requests or through the normal course of WGQ activities, NAESB: 1 Updated the Nominations Related Standards to allow a Service Requester to determine which rights of the contract its segmentation nomination is using; 2 updated the Quadrant EDM Related Standards to i define a NAESB standard time frame for information to be retained on a pipelines Informational Postings website, ii allow for processing functions at the line item level on Customer Activities websites and allow for the use of icons and/or graphical control elements for navigation and/or processing functions, and iii make minor revisions designed to add clarity, update the minimum technical characteristics to account for changes in technology since the previous version Version 3.1 of the WGQ standards, and update the minimum and suggested operating systems and web browsers that entities should support; 3 updated multiple sets of standards to remove references to the term gigacalories and add the term gigajoules as the standard quantity for nominations, confirmations, and scheduling in Mexico; and 4 revised the NAESB
WGQ data sets or other technical implementation documentation while not resulting in modifications to the underlying business practice standards.
I. Background 5. Since 1996, the Commission has adopted regulations to standardize the business practices and communication methodologies of interstate natural gas pipelines to create a more integrated and efficient pipeline system. These regulations have been promulgated in
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