FERC Proposes Expansion Of The Blanket Certificate Program

On May 21, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) in Docket No. RM25-12-001 proposing the most consequential overhaul of its regulations governing natural gas pipeline permitting in 20 years. If finalized, the NOPR’s proposals would expand the scope of FERC’s regulations governing Part 157, Subpart F blanket certificates, which authorize construction of pipeline facilities without the need for a case-specific Natural Gas Act (NGA) section 7 authorization, as long as the operator provides “prior notice.”

The NOPR is expressly deregulatory: the proposed changes include more than doubling of the dollar threshold governing blanket certificate eligibility, the right for operators to charge incremental rates for prior notice projects, and a modernization of the indexing methodology used to set future cost thresholds. Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, and the Commission has invited input on