Blankets – FERC Starts a Process to Expand Blanket Gas Pipeline Authorizations

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on May 21 proposing to apply its “blanket authorization” rules to a lot more natural gas pipeline projects than in the past. The goal is to make it easier for a broader set of projects to advance without having to go through full-blown regulatory certificate cases. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the NOPR and what the planned rule change would mean for pipeline owners and developers.

Let’s start with the basics. A NOPR like the one just issued (see Figure 1 below) is a heads-up from FERC that it proposes to change its regulations and, as required by law, has asked for input from the public and the energy industry before those changes become official. We should note that a NOPR has a lot more oomph than other ways FERC can notify the public about regulatory changes in the works — it says the commission wants to make the change and it’s essentially a done deal unless there’s a compelling reason not to that it hasn’t already considered. The notice-and-comment process is required by the Administrative Procedure Act to build a record to support changes in the regulations. In contrast, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANOPR) indicates that the language in a proposed rule change is still a work in progress. A Notice of Inquiry (NOI) is even less formal, suggesting FERC wants to open an examination into an industry issue and is looking for widespread input before ever getting to a proposal.