We are subject to risks associated with climate change and the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change and the costs that may be associated with its impacts and with the regulation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have the potential to affect our business in many ways, including negatively impacting the costs we incur in providing our products and services, the demand for and consumption of our products and services (due to change in both costs and weather patterns), and the economic health of the regions in which we operate, all of which can create financial risks.

In addition, legislative and regulatory responses related to GHGs and climate change create the potential for financial risk.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final determination that six GHG emissions are a threat to public safety and welfare and implemented permitting for new and/or modified large sources of GHG emissions. Increased public awareness and concern over climate change may result in additional state, regional and/or federal requirements to reduce or mitigate GHG emissions. The U.S. Congress and certain states have for some time been considering various forms of legislation related to GHG emissions and additional regulation of

GHG emissions in our industry may be implemented under existing Clean Air Act programs. There have also been international efforts seeking legally binding reductions in emissions of GHGs.

Regulatory actions by the EPA or the passage of new climate change laws or regulations could result in increased costsare imposed relating to (i) operateoil and maintain our facilities, (ii) install new emission controls on our facilities and (iii) administer and manage any GHG emissions program. If wegas extraction, or if additional levels of reporting, regulation or permitting moratoria are unable to recoverrequired or pass through a significant level of our costsimposed, including those related to complying with climate change regulatory requirements imposed on us, ithydraulic fracturing, the volumes of natural gas that we transport could have a material adverse effect ondecline and our results of operations and financial condition. To the extent financial markets view climate change and GHG emissions as a financial risk, this could negatively impact our cost of and access to capital. Legislation or regulations that may be adopted to address climate change could also affect the markets for our products and services by making our products and services less desirable than competing sources of energy.

adversely affected.

There is inherent risk of the incurrence of environmental costs and liabilities in our business, some of which may be material, due to our handling of the products as they are gathered, transported, and stored, air emissions related to our operations, historical industry operations, waste and waste disposal practices, and the prior use of flow meters containing mercury.

Our business may be adversely affected by changed regulations and increased costs due to stricter pollution control requirements or liabilities resulting from noncompliance with required operating or other regulatory permits. We make assumptions and develop expectations about possible expenditures related to environmental conditions based on current laws and regulations and current interpretation of those laws and regulations. If the interpretation of the laws and regulations themselves change, our assumptions and expectations may also change and any new capital costs incurred to comply with such changes may not be recoverable under our regulatory rate structure or our customer contracts. We might not be able to obtain or maintain from time to time all required environmental regulatory approvals for our operations. If there is a delay in obtaining any required environmental regulatory approvals, or if we fail to obtain and comply with them, the operation or construction of our facilities could be prevented or become subject to additional costs, resulting in potentially material adverse consequences to our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

unknown. In connection with certain acquisitions and divestitures, we could acquire, or be required to provide indemnification against, environmental liabilities that could expose us to material losses, which may not be covered by insurance. In addition, the steps we could be required to take to bring certain facilities into compliance could be prohibitively expensive, and we might be required to shut down, divest or alter the operation of those facilities, which might cause us to incur losses.

Increased

Hydraulic fracturing, a practice involving the injection of water, sand and chemicals under pressure into tight geologic formations to stimulate oil and natural gas production, is currently exempt from federal regulation pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (except when the fracturing fluids or propping agents contain diesel fuels). However, public concerns have been raisedour costs related to its potential environmental impact and therecomplying with climate change regulatory requirements imposed on us, it could have been recent initiatives at the federal, state and local levels to regulate or otherwise restrict the usea material

Furthermore, any insurance company that provides coverage to us may experience negative developments that could impair their ability to pay any of our claims. As a result, we could be exposed to greater losses than anticipated and may have to obtain replacement insurance, if available, at a greater cost.

Execution

We are not prohibited under our indentures from incurring additional indebtedness. Our incurrence of significant additional indebtedness would exacerbate the negative consequences mentioned above, and could adversely affect our ability to repay our existing indebtedness.

Regulatoryadministrative actions in these areas, including successful complaints or protests against our rates, can affect our business in many ways, including by decreasing existing tariff rates andor setting future tariff rates to levels such that revenues are inadequate to recover increases in operating costs or to sustain an adequate return on capital investments, decreasing volumes in our pipelines, increasing our costs and otherwise altering the profitability of our business.

The rates, terms and conditions for our interstate pipeline and storage services are set forth in our FERC-approved tariff. Any successful complaint or protest against our rates could have an adverse impact on our revenues associated with providing transportation and storage services.

We could be subject to penalties and fines if we fail to comply with laws governing our business.

Our operations are regulated by numerous governmental agencies including the FERC, the EPA and PHMSA. Should we fail to comply with applicable statutes, rules, regulations and orders, we could be subject to substantial penalties and fines. For example, under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the FERC has civil penalty authority under the NGA to impose penalties for current violations of up to $1,000,000 per day for each violation and under the recently enacted Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, PHMSA has civil penalty authority up to $200,000 per day, with a maximum of $2 million for any related series of violations. Any material penalties or fines under these or other statutes, rules, regulations or orders could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

The outcome of future rate cases to set the rates we can charge customers on our pipeline might result in rates that lower our return on the capital that we have invested in our pipeline.

There is a risk that rates set by the FERC in our future rate cases will be inadequate to recover increases in operating costs or to sustain an adequate return on capital investments. There is also the risk that higher rates will cause our customers to look for alternative ways to transport their natural gas.