When Public Convenience and Necessity Are Not Enough: Who Is Deciding Whether, Where, and How to Build Natural Gas Pipelines?

摘要

Receiving Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or state utility commission authorizations thatconvey the power of eminent domain has historically provided utility companies in the UnitedStates with some assurance that natural gas pipelines could be built in a timely and financiallypredictable manner. Recent projects have called this concept into question. In implementingtheir environmental regulations, other federal and state agencies, possessing limited authorityover natural gas pipelines, have delayed projects that have already been determined to be inthe public interest and received certificates of public convenience and necessity. As a result ofconflicting or overlapping agency objectives and priorities, project applicants have experiencedlengthy reanalysis of a project's purpose and need, routing alternatives, and environmental im-pacts. Resulting delays and environmental permit conditions have significantly increased costs,jeopardized delivery contracts, and in some cases, resulted in project cancellation. Case studiesof the Islander East, We Energies, and Georgia Strait Crossing pipeline projects provide specificdetails on the economic and regulatory impacts resulting from this phenomenon. The implica-tions of conflicting environmental regulatory review and insufficient agency coordination, andthe steps being taken to avoid scenarios such as those presented in the case studies are also dis-cussed.