Michael L. Krancer, Margaret A. Hill, and Stephen C. Zumbrun
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) weighed in rapidly and decisively on the Sabal Trail (a/k/a Southeast Market Pipelines or “SMP Project”) case that the D.C. Circuit remanded to it on August 22, 2017.[1] As previously discussed in greater detail by Frederick M. Lowther and Frank Tamulonis, the D.C. Circuit ruled that, in approving the SMP Project, FERC did not but should have considered potential “downstream” greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from power plants burning natural gas supplied by the pipeline when preparing the final environmental impact statement (“FEIS”) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). In vacating and remanding to FERC, the D.C. Circuit concluded that “at a minimum, FERC should have estimated the amount of power plant carbon emissions that the pipelines will make possible” or if FERC was unable to quantify this amount, FERC should have “explained more specifically why it could not have done so.” Continue reading “FERC Responds Quickly and Decisively to D.C. Circuit Remand in Sabal Trail Matter on Downstream GHG Analysis”
On the heels of high-profile solar regulatory decisions in Nevada and Hawaii last year and in California earlier this year, Pennsylvania took center stage last week in the ongoing battle over net metering policy. Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) disapproved a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) rulemaking that would have imposed additional limitations on the size of systems that qualify for net metering credit. IRRC’s disapproval of the rulemaking means that further attempts to reform net metering policy in Pennsylvania will likely have to come through legislative action.