DC Circuit Embraces Seven County In FERC Pipeline Review Proceeding

In Sierra Club v. FERC, No. 24-1199 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 1, 2025), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) approval of a 1,000-foot natural gas pipeline segment crossing the United States-Mexico border (the Border Pipeline) under section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA), rejecting environmental groups' challenges that FERC improperly limited its analysis under both the NGA and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as related to a 155-mile intrastate "Connector Pipeline" constructed upstream of the Border Pipeline in Texas.

Critically, the court embraced the U.S. Supreme Court's Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County (Seven County) precedent, holding that FERC's scope-of-review decisions were entitled to "substantial deference" so long as they fell within a "broad zone of reasonableness" and bore a "reasonably close causal relationship" to the