The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked a federal appeals court to dismiss environmental group and landowner challenges to the agency's approval of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC's 1.7-Bcf/d Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline project.
In a May 10 motion, FERC asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss four petitions for court review. Two of the petitions were filed by the Sierra Club, the Allegheny Defense Project and other environmental groups, and two were filed by landowners.
In addition to the certificate order for Atlantic Sunrise, related FERC orders challenged by the petitions included a tolling order for the rehearing of the certificate order, a construction authorization, and a tolling order related to the construction authorization. Pipeline opponents have criticized FERC's use of tolling orders to delay the commission's decisions on requests for rehearing, saying such indefinite extensions place petitioners in a "legal limbo" while project developers proceed with construction activities.
FERC said the petitions were "incurably premature." Two petitions asked the court to review the certificate order and the related tolling order while the commission was still considering requests for rehearing of the certificate order. Two other petitions that challenged the construction order and other orders were filed before FERC acted on rehearing of the construction order. In addition, FERC said because neither group of petitioners sought rehearing of the tolling orders, "they waived their opportunity to challenge them on appeal." (U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit docket 17-1098)
In November 2017 and in February of this year, the court denied project opponents' requests for a stay.
Transco received FERC authorization in February 2017 for the $3 billion expansion. The Williams Partners LP company's project will provide an outlet for Marcellus Shale producers and deliver gas to the Transco mainline, which connects Eastern U.S. markets. (FERC docket CP15-138)
