News

FERC amends rule related to rehearings for natural gas projects

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) amended its regulations to ensure that a natural gas construction project cannot proceed until the commission acts on a request for rehearing.

In September 2019, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee pledged that FERC would strive to act on landowner-related gas project rehearing requests within 30 days. Then, in February 2020, Chatterjee announced the creation of a new Rehearing section within FERC’s Office of the General Counsel to help ensure that rehearing requests are considered as quickly as possible.

Chatterjee said the new rule builds on those previous efforts and reinforces FERC’s commitment to transparency and improve procedural protections for landowners.

“The commission has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve affected landowners’ access to a fair and transparent process, and today’s effort is another important step forward,” Chatterjee said. “These are complex issues, with a diverse array of stakeholder input, but I remain firmly committed to doing what we can to make the FERC process as fair, open, and transparent as possible for all those affected while the Commission thoroughly considers all issues.”

FERC considers applications for natural gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas projects. These proceedings have seen increased interest and participation by an array of stakeholders, including landowners, in recent years. The commission’s process includes provisions for rehearing, but the often-complex proceedings sometimes require more than 30 days. In such instances, the commission issues tolling orders that grant additional time to consider the requests and resolve these intricate matters. This rule states that even if a project has all other certifications and permissions to begin construction, it must wait until the commission either acts on the rehearing request or the 30-day time limit passes with no requests for rehearing.

This rule takes effect within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register.

Dave Kovaleski

Recent Posts

NERC makes recommendations for proactively meeting power challenges this summer

The power industry and policymakers should consider implementing several recommendations now to meet expected supply shortfalls prior to the start…

2 days ago

National Renewable Energy Lab uses robots to aid wind turbine blade manufacturing

Looking to cut down on the difficult nature of the work for humans and improve consistency of the outcome, the…

3 days ago

Switch to LED streetlights could save Sylvania, Ohio nearly $77,000 annually

Toledo Edison this month began a massive streetlight conversion project through Sylvania, Ohio, installing the first of 1,650 LED replacements.…

3 days ago

Southern Nuclear names new CEO and chairman

Peter Sena III has been named the new chairman and CEO of Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of the Southern Company.…

3 days ago

Argonne National Lab to build R&D facility to test large-scale fuel cell systems

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is con structing a research and development (R&D) facility to…

3 days ago

Program that offers tax credits for wind and solar in low-income communities to launch soon

A program that provides a 10 or 20-percentage point boost to the investment tax credit for qualified solar or wind…

4 days ago

This website uses cookies.