Citizen Portal
Sign In

Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows

Get Lifetime Access

FERC to revise NEPA references and issue interim guidance after CEQ changes, chairman says

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) · April 17, 2025

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Following recent CEQ changes to NEPA regulations, the FERC chairman said the commission will issue a quick rule to remove references to replaced CEQ regs, publish guidance as an interim measure, and pursue longer-term NEPA regulatory revisions while protecting pending Section 3 and 7 applications from procedural challenge.

The FERC chairman told reporters the commission will act to adapt to recent Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) changes to NEPA regulations but will do so in a way intended to preserve the legal defensibility of pending certificates.

Asked whether CEQ had directed agencies to rescind NEPA regulations in favor of guidance, the chairman said FERC has long followed CEQ guidance and that the commission will likely issue a short rule to eliminate references to now-obsolete CEQ language, follow with guidance as an interim step, and ultimately revise its NEPA regulations. He emphasized that many Section 3 and Section 7 applications are pending and "every single one is going to be challenged in court," so FERC must act within applicable law to ensure certificates hold up.

The chairman cited recent court litigation trends (including the Mountain Valley Pipeline litigation) to underline the need for careful procedural steps and said the agency will work to replace deleted CEQ guidance while maintaining defensible procedures for ongoing reviews.

The chairman declined to provide operational detail on which parts of N E P A procedures would be rescinded immediately versus reserved for long-term revision, saying staff will develop steps to preserve pending applications.