Federal energy regulators announced Thursday that they plan to curtail cumulative environmental reviews of new energy projects, in response to a landmark Supreme Court ruling last year.
Laura Swett, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said the analyses FERC has been doing exceed National Environmental Policy Act standards.
NEPA “does not require the commission to complete a cumulative effects analysis, and we are no longer going to waste valuable staff and applicant time and money doing an analysis that is not necessary under the law,” Swett said during the commission’s monthly meeting.
Swett’s announcement about cumulative reviews was overshadowed by the commission’s suite of actions to address connecting data centers to the electric grid, following a directive last year from Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Swett provided the update about cumulative analyses through a FERC order approving a natural gas project in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
