Mounting pressure on FERC to change the way it reviews natural gas projects is making energy investors more nervous and is risking a disruption of the U.S. energy infrastructure buildout, according to former Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee.
Decisions made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have increasingly come under scrutiny by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC) Circuit. The court has particularly taken aim at FERC’s process for reviewing LNG terminals, remanding and vacating approval for three projects to date this year.
Chatterjee called this summer’s decisions “consequential” for the “country’s most significant energy regulator,” potentially threatening its ability to remain a bipartisan force of balance for the U.S. energy market.