ELR Citation: 55 ELR 20036
No(s). 23-1174 (D.C. Cir. Mar 18, 2025)

The D.C. Circuit partially granted petitions for rehearing in a challenge to FERC's reauthorization of two liquefied natural gas terminals and an associated pipeline in Texas. In a prior opinion, the court held FERC erred by failing to issue supplemental EISs addressing its updated environmental justice analysis, failing to treat a proposed carbon capture and sequestration system as a connected action, failing to treat that system as a reasonable alternative, and failing to adequately explain why it declined to consider air quality data from a nearby monitor; it vacated the reauthorization orders. The projects' applicants petitioned for rehearing, disputing portions of the opinion and arguing that any errors in FERC's orders did not warrant vacatur. The court found the procedural steps FERC skipped were important but not fundamental, and that the seriousness of the deficiencies did not outweigh the disruptive effects of vacatur. It remanded without vacatur to FERC to conduct further proceedings.