November 2017, Vol. 244, No. 11

Government

Government

FERC Sets Precedent for Overriding State Blockage of New Pipelines The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under new Chairman Neil Chatterjee wasted no time making it clear it would use the exemption authority given to it recently by a U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia in order to approve pipeline construction where states balk at issuing decisions on Clean Water Act permits. FERC’s decision in September may have wider implications, given several other pipelines arguing about construction being delayed by balking state agencies. One of those is the Constitution Pipeline that got a boost in August from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which followed the