ELR Citation: 44 ELR 20126
No(s). 13-1015 (D.C. Cir. Jun 6, 2014)

The D.C. Circuit held that FERC violated NEPA when it approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Northeast. The project will upgrade a portion of a much longer natural gas pipeline known as the 300 Line. An environmental group challenged the approval, arguing that FERC violated NEPA when it segmented its review of the Northeast Project, giving no consideration to three other connected, contemporaneous, closely related, and interdependent projects on the 300 Line. FERC countered that because each project resulted in a measurable increase in the pipeline's overall capacity, the agency was justified in completing the NEPA analysis of the Northeast Project separately from the other projects. But the record clearly shows that when FERC issued its approval for the project, the entire eastern leg of the 300 Line was undergoing a complete overhaul and upgrade that was physically, functionally, and financially connected and interdependent. In addition, while approval of the project was pending, the other three projects that would constitute the revamped eastern leg were either under construction or were also pending before FERC for environmental review and approval. Given the interrelatedness of the projects as well as their temporal overlap, FERC should have considered the other three pipeline projects when it conducted its NEPA review of the Northeast Project. In addition, FERC's EA is deficient in its failure to include any meaningful analysis of the cumulative impacts of the upgrade projects. The court therefore remanded the case for further consideration.