NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Clerk/Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, Supreme Court Building, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release.
THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
___________________________
Hillsborough-southern judicial district
No. 97-862
TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY
v.
TOWN OF HUDSON
December 28, 2000
Sulloway & Hollis, P.L.L.C., of Concord (Margaret H. Nelson on the brief and orally), for the plaintiff.
Upton Sanders & Smith, of Concord (Robert Upton II on the brief and orally), for the defendant.
BROCK, C.J. The plaintiff, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (utility), appeals from an order of the Superior Court (Hollman, J.) denying a tax abatement for the 1995 tax year relating to its property in Hudson. See RSA 76:17 (Supp. 1999). We affirm.
The evidence presented during trial indicates the following. The utility owns and operates a high pressure natural gas pipeline which transmits wholesale natural gas to EnergyNorth Natural Gas, Inc. (EnergyNorth) for distribution to its retail customers. As of April 1, 1995, the utility's taxable property in Hudson consisted of approximately three miles of buried eight-inch pipeline, 1,337 feet of buried six-inch pipeline, twenty acres of associated easements, a metering station, and related items. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates the utility's rate base, see generally 15 U.S.C.