Climate: Court Rules FERC Pipeline Approval Failed To Weigh Emissions

"Federal regulators did not adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions when approving a natural gas pipeline project in the Southeast, a federal court today ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed to either quantify greenhouse gas emissions linked to the project or sufficiently explain why it could not.

"FERC's environmental impact statement did not contain enough information on the greenhouse-gas emissions that will result from burning the gas that the pipelines will carry," Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the 2-1 opinion for the court.

The court sent the project approval back to FERC for the agency to prepare an environmental impact statement consistent with the opinion. Judge Judith Rogers, a Clinton appointee, joined the opinion. Judge Janice Rogers Brown, another Bush appointee, dissented."

Amanda Reilly reports for Greenwire August 22, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Court Rejects Pipeline Rubber-Stamp, Orders Climate Impact Review" (InsideClimate News)