pipelines – The NEPA Lab

The D.C. Circuit Confirms: FERC Shouldn’t Just Ignore Downstream Emissions in its NEPA Documents

August 23, 2017 Jamison Colburn climate change, FERC, fracking, pipelines FERC, fracking, GHGs, NEPA, Southeast Market pipelines

The big word from the D.C. Circuit just out yesterday in Sierra Club v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 2017 WL 3597014 (D.C. Cir. 2017), is this: “downstream” emissions in pipeline approvals—the emissions that will or may occur as a result of the pipeline’s operation—cannot just be categorically excluded from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) NEPA […]

Williams & Co. Stumble in Pipeline Project: Did NYS Just Create a Playbook?

August 21, 2017 Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, CWA Section 401, FERC, fracking, pipelines constitution pipeline, FERC, fracking, risk

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is the authorized agency implementing New York’s Clean Water Act water quality standards. The extraordinary thing about these standards is that federal projects that might violate those standards cannot just be waived through by a federal agency in control. Only the authorized state can do that […]

A Pipeline, A North Dakota Community’s Water, and the End of a NEPA Saga?

August 17, 2017 Jamison Colburn Bureau of Reclamation, pipelines, risk governance Minot, NAWS, risk, water, whirling disease

Unless you’re one of the 80K+ residents of northern North Dakota who’s been waiting on this project, you’d be forgiven for thinking we mean that other pipeline that got hung up on NEPA. This pipeline is a straw moving water from one watershed (the Missouri River basin) to another (the Hudson Bay basin). The proposal […]

DAPL: The Winter of Trump’s Environmental Agenda?

March 6, 2017 Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, FONSI, judicial relief, pipelines DAPL, pipelines, risk, Standing Rock

The world waits as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s (SRST) appeal in their case opposing the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) crossing Lake Oahe. In the end, the argument on appeal comes down to a NEPA claim: that the Corps should’ve prepared […]

What Else Is there to Say?

December 5, 2016 Jamison Colburn FONSI, oil, pipelines DAPL, Lake Oahe, risk, Standing Rock 1

MoMa has an outstanding collection of twentieth century art (including Edward Ruscha’s antic classic OOF). Which understatement deserves another: President-elect Donald J. Trump promises to bring the unexpected back to NEPA. Indeed, Trump’s election has already given us one surprise: the Corps of Engineers’ decision yesterday to prepare a full impact statement on a right-of-way […]

Bias v. NEPA: What if Informational Tools are Futile?

October 8, 2016 Jamison Colburn climate change, FERC, pipelines climate change, FERC, pipelines, risk

As we’ve written up at the Lab before, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) plays an absolutely vital role in permitting and governing the nation’s energy infrastructure. And that vests it with a leading role in the nation’s fossil fuel future. This has not been lost on the environmental groups that keep challenging FERC’s decisions […]

The (In)significance of Greenhouse Gases in NEPA

August 1, 2016 Jamison Colburn action agencies, FERC, fracking, pipelines Dominion Cove Point, FERC, Marcellus, PennEast, risk

In an opinion released late last month, the D.C. Circuit rejected several NEPA challenges brought against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s permissions at Dominion Cove Point. The climate change claims were the most important and FERC may well count Earthreports, Inc. v. Federal Energy Reg. Comm’n 2016 WL 3853830 (D.C. Cir. 2016) among its most […]

Dominion Cove Point @ the D.C. Circuit: Wherever Causation Leads . . .

April 21, 2016 Jamison Colburn action agencies, FERC, pipelines Dominion Cove Point, downstream emissions, FERC, risk

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licenses the pipeline transport of natural gas pursuant to the Natural Gas Act and other authorities. Dominion Energy, Cabot Oil & Gas and others petitioned FERC for permission to convert the major liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Lusby, Maryland, from an import-oriented facility to an export-driven one. America’s […]

KXL the Keystone of US/Canada Relations No Longer

November 6, 2015 Jamison Colburn climate change, oil, pipelines Keystone, NEPA, Tar Sands

As has been widely reported, the KXL application will be denied. Our stories about KXL (like here) noted the challenges inherent in counting greenhouse gas emissions from something like the Alberta tar sands. In weighing a single infrastructure project (even an immense one) meant to speed development, it proved exceedingly hard to synthesize good accounting rules sorting out which emissions to […]

FERC, Programmatic Analysis and the Shale Gas Boom Going Bust

October 29, 2015 Jamison Colburn action agencies, fracking, pipelines, segmentation, uncategorized FERC, Marcellus, pipelines, risk

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the successor-agency to one of the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) principal catalysts, the now-defunct Federal Power Commission (FPC). The FPC was renowned for its ham-handed exclusion of environmentalists and other intervenors as it was licensing dams and other hydro projects in the 1960s. So recalcitrant and cozy […]

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Category: pipelines