Section 66-F. Purchase and procurement of natural gas at lowest available price

1. The commission shall have the  authority  to  direct  any  gas
  corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the commission to purchase or
  procure  natural  gas at the lowest available price as determined by the
  commission.
    2. A gas corporation shall be required to purchase supplies of natural
  gas whenever a natural gas producer provides the gas corporation with at
  least six months prior notice of the availability of such gas,  and  the
  delivered  cost  of  such  gas  is  equal  to  or  less than the highest
  delivered cost of natural gas produced outside the state which  the  gas
  corporation  would  otherwise  purchase  or acquire, adjusted to reflect
  substantive differences, if any, in the terms and conditions  applicable
  to  the  sale of such gas over the period of availability of the natural
  gas; provided, however, that no gas corporation  shall  be  required  to
  purchase  natural  gas where it can demonstrate such purchase would have
  an adverse impact  upon  its  ratepayers,  which  cannot  be  reasonably
  mitigated.
    3.  A  gas  corporation  shall  respond to a notice of availability of
  supplies of natural gas at a specified  delivered  cost  provided  by  a
  producer  of  such  gas  within one month of the receipt of such notice,
  and, if it indicates its intent not to  purchase  such  supplies,  shall
  provide  in  detail  its  reasons  therefor.  A natural gas producer may
  petition the public service  commission,  within  fifteen  days  of  the
  receipt  of  a gas corporation's response, to order such gas corporation
  to comply with subdivision one of  this  section.  Such  petition  shall
  contain  sufficient  information to demonstrate the petitioner's ability
  to provide the supplies of natural gas  offered  for  sale  to  the  gas
  corporation.  A copy of such petition shall also be served upon such gas
  corporation. Within twenty-one days of the receipt of such a petition, a
  gas  corporation  shall  file  such  information  as  is  necessary   to
  demonstrate  that  the  purchase  of  natural  gas  during the period of
  availability at the specified delivered cost of such gas would  have  an
  adverse impact upon its ratepayers. The petitioner and others shall have
  the opportunity to comment upon the filing by the gas corporation within
  twenty-one  days  of such filing. The commission shall take final action
  on any such petition within forty days after the  date  upon  which  the
  petitioner's  comments  are  due.  The  commission  may  require  a  gas
  corporation to purchase all or a portion of the supplies of natural  gas
  offered  by  the  petitioner  during  the  period of availability at the
  specified delivered cost, or at such other cost as will not result in an
  adverse impact upon such gas corporation's ratepayers. Nothing  in  this
  section  shall  require  a producer of natural gas to sell such gas to a
  gas corporation at a cost other than that specified  in  its  notice  of
  availability.