Town of Weymouth v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

In an unpublished judgment, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to proposed upgrades to existing natural gas pipelines in New England. The court rejected the contention that the project did not serve the public convenience and necessity in violation of the Natural Gas Act. The court also rejected claims that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) consideration of environmental effects, including greenhouse gas emissions, was inadequate. The court said that FERC had “both quantified the project’s expected greenhouse-gas emissions and discussed how the project would interact with Massachusetts’s climate-change goals.” The court also found that FERC had not violated the Coastal Zone Management Act.