ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20090
No(s). 20-1206 (D.C. Cir. Aug 2, 2022)

The D.C. Circuit denied environmental groups' and township's petitions to review FERC's approval of an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a proposed natural gas pipeline project in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The petitioners argued FERC violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider upstream effects of increased demand for gas, downstream effects of increased gas consumption, effects on climate change resulting from downstream greenhouse gas emissions, and the environmental effects of constructing a compressor station as compared to alternatives. The court found that petitioners offered no evidence undermining FERC's conclusion that upstream effects were not reasonably foreseeable; that the Commission reasonably concluded it could not quantify or foresee the impacts of downstream emissions because it lacked adequate data on how gas from the pipeline would be used; that the court lacked jurisdiction to consider the climate change effects claim because petitioners had failed to properly raise their argument before the Commission; and that the Commission took a sufficiently "hard look" at the environmental effects of the compressor station. The petitioners also challenged FERC's finding of market need for the project under the Natural Gas Act (NGA), but the court found the Commission's approval of four precedent agreements with different natural gas shippers for most of the project's transportation capacity was sufficient. The court declined to consider the petitioners' claim that FERC's interpretation of the NGA was unconstitutional because they had failed to raise the argument before the Commission. It denied the petitions for review.