Washington v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Washington and Oregon filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging FERC’s authorization of the construction and operation of Gas Transmission Northwest Xpress, a project to expand the capacity of a natural gas pipeline. The petition challenged FERC’s issuance of the certificate as well as FERC’s order on rehearing and FERC’s “denial by operation of law” of a request for further rehearing. The states previously filed a petition for review challenging the certificate; that proceeding was consolidated with other cases and transferred to the Fifth Circuit. The states’ petition asserted that the project would harm them, including by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbating climate change harms to state-owned coastal land, forests, parks, and other property.