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ARTICLE · 01 MARCH 2023

FERC's Climate Review In Flux

Jones Day
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The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ("FERC") approach to the way it assesses climate impacts in natural gas pipeline and LNG facility proceedings looks to remain uncertain in 2023.

United StatesEnvironment
Jewel R. Hand (J.R.)
Jewel R. Hand (J.R.)
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The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ("FERC") approach to the way it assesses climate impacts in natural gas pipeline and LNG facility proceedings looks to remain uncertain in 2023. FERC's climate review has been a source of intense debate in recent years. When President Biden appointed Richard Glick as the FERC chair in 2021 and FERC gained a Democratic majority, Glick vowed to adjust the agency's approach to weighing pipelines' greenhouse gas emissions. And indeed, under Glick's leadership, FERC formally addressed the significance of a natural gas pipeline's greenhouse gas emissions for the first time in FERC's history and attempted to update its natural gas certificate policy statement—an overarching document that guides the agency's pipeline certificate reviews—for the first time in more than 20 years.

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