A coalition of public interest groups, landowners and fishermen are challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s recent decision to suspend a regulation designed to protect landowner rights.
Last month, FERC temporarily suspended Order 871, which pauses the construction of pipeline and liquefied natural gas facilities during legal challenges. FERC Chair Mark Christie argued the regulation had become “a tool to get automatic stay on a project during rehearing process” and was being “misused” to delay projects. The suspension is set for one year.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and nearly 30 other public interest and community groups, along with impacted landowners and fishermen, recently filed motions with FERC arguing that the suspension of Order 871 removes important protections.
“This FERC Order suspends its own regulation by relying on the so-called ‘energy emergency’ as a baseless excuse to allow gas companies to skirt regulations and build harmful, unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure on the backs of ratepayers,” Megan Gibson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “We are calling on FERC to immediately rescind this unlawful order and preserve the underlying regulation that offers basic, incredibly narrow protections to communities in these proceedings.”
