Stephanie Ebbs, Southern Environmental Law Center, sebbs@selc.org
Shannon Van Hoesen, Sierra Club, shannon.vanhoesen@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – A coalition of public interest groups, landowners, and fishermen filed a challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ‘waiver order’ that allows FERC to avoid its own regulations for construction of pipelines and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facilities.
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the challenge alongside NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Sierra Club – and 30 in total public interest and community organizations throughout the country, and six impacted landowners and fishermen.
Last month, FERC issued an order that immediately suspended its own regulations known as Order No. 871 for a year, while it considers suspending the regulation permanently. That regulation, finalized in 2021 after several rounds of inquiry and public engagement (including the solicitation and filing of briefs), provides basic protections to communities and landowners by temporarily pausing the authorization or ‘green light’ of construction of methane gas pipelines or LNG export facilities until the Commission completes its agency review of a pending challenge.
SELC, NRDC, and partner groups and individuals have filed a request for rehearing challenging the unlawfulness of the order suspending 871.
“This FERC Order suspends its own regulation by relying on the so-called ‘energy emergency’ as a baseless excuse to allow gas companies to skirt regulations and build harmful, unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure on the backs of ratepayers, causing irreversible land, community, and environmental impacts,” SELC Senior Attorney Megan Gibson said. “We are calling on FERC to immediately rescind this unlawful order and preserve the underlying regulation that offers basic, incredibly narrow protections to communities in these proceedings.”
“These bipartisan policies were issued to prevent gas companies from recklessly seizing land or beginning construction before communities could challenge a FERC approval. By suspending these protections without public comment, FERC irreparably harms communities and undermines its integrity by selling out to the fossil fuel industry,” said Gillian Giannetti, NRDC Senior Attorney and Director of Fossil Strategy.
“FERC is attempting to jettison the very modest safeguards it previously adopted to help protect the environment and landowners from unnecessary harm caused by constructing gas pipelines and LNG export terminals,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Elly Benson. “Local ecosystems, landowners, and the health and safety of communities will suffer if this unlawful suspension remains in place. FERC is an independent agency tasked with protecting the public interest, and it should start acting as such rather than serving as a rubberstamp for polluters.”
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About Southern Environmental Law Center
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 130 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. selc.org
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.