On January 31, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) denied requests for an en banc rehearing of an August 2017 decision (Sierra Club v. FERC) vacating FERC’s approval of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project (“SMP Project”), a natural gas pipeline currently under construction in the southeastern United States. In its August decision, the D.C. Circuit held that FERC failed to analyze the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the SMP Project, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). On February 2, 2018, the developers for the SMP Project filed a request at FERC for expedited reissued construction approval certificates, or in the alternative, temporary emergency certificates, arguing that halting work on the SMP Project will cause “irreparable harm.” Continue reading →

On January 26, 2018 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) rejected a challenge to FERC’s approval of tariff revisions from the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) regarding the so-called cost-of-new-entry (“CONE”), or the anticipated revenues required to recover costs in PJM’s wholesale capacity market. A coalition of generators challenged PJM’s CONE as too low, which they argued undercut their own recovery in the capacity market. In a brief opinion, the D.C. Circuit held that petitioners’ claims failed to overcome the deferential standard of review applied to factual challenges to agency orders. Continue reading →