natural gas pipelines

How broad does Clean Water Act 401 certification sweep?

Recent disputes over infrastructure projects highlights the importance of the question

Another issue for ping-pong governance over the past few years has been certification under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.  For those of you who are not deep into the weeds of the Clean Water Act, Section 401 requires (a) federal agencies that are issuing licenses or permits that (b) result in discharges to …

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Climate Change and the Major Question Doctrine

Just because a regulation involves climate change, that doesn’t make it a major question.

Red State AGs are preparing to go to town with the West Virginia case. They seem to think that everything involving climate change automatically becomes a major question. That’s simply wrong. The doctrine is more nuanced. Recall that the Supreme Court struck down OSHA’s vaccine mandate, essentially on major questions grounds, but the majority found …

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Pipelines, Emissions and FERC

From now on, carbon emissions from new pipelines will be one of FERC’s key concerns.

On Friday there were two seismic shocks in the world of gas pipeline regulation. FERC has spent years resisting pressure to change the way it licenses new gas pipelines. A whole point of a natural gas pipeline is to deliver the gas to users who will burn it, thereby releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. FERC …

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