A recent Supreme Court ruling could shake up how environmental groups challenge natural gas pipelines by undercutting a seminal lower court decision that required federal regulators to evaluate a project’s downstream greenhouse gas emissions.
In May, the high court ruled in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County that agencies are not required to analyze environmental impacts outside of their jurisdiction, or that are too far removed in either time or space from the project under review. A number of legal experts say the 8-0 decision undermines the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s 2017 ruling in Sierra Club v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The so-called Sabal Trail decision is often cited by environmental groups and others pushing FERC to more seriously consider how its approval of new gas projects could contribute to rising global temperatures.
“What the Supreme Court did was give Sabal Trail a decent burial,” said Joe Kelliher, who was FERC chair under former President George W. Bush.
