Alabama Municipal Distributors Group v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) properly applied the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the Evangeline Pass Expansion Project, which included expanded pipelines, compression facilities, and meter stations in the southeastern United States to transport more natural gas. First, the court found that the environmental impact statement did not exclude “connected” actions, rejecting the petitioner’s claim that the NEPA review’s scope should have included four other natural gas projects. Second, the court agreed with FERC that NEPA did not require consideration of indirect environmental effects of exported gas that would flow through the project’s pipeline system. The court reasoned that Congress gave export authorization to the U.S. Department of Energy, not FERC, and cited precedent holding that FERC did not have to consider indirect effects of actions beyond its delegated authority. Third, the D.C. Circuit ruled that FERC was not required to use the social cost of carbon tool. The D.C. Circuit also found that FERC reasonably denied municipal petitioners’ request for a future credit on existing rates.