US Environmentalists Welcome Decision on Gas Pipeline Project

On August 24, 2017, it was reported that the D.C. Circuit Court struck down the federal approval of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, a natural gas pipeline system running from Alabama to Florida. The court ruled that the federal environmental review had not adequately addressed the project’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

The project consists of three pipelines spanning over 500 miles across Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, designed to transport 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to power plants and utility customers in Florida. The largest of these is the Sabal Trail pipeline, which is planned to deliver gas to a Duke plant under construction in Crystal River. Sabal Trail Transmission had announced in July that the system had been placed into commercial operation. In the majority opinion, Judges Judith Rogers and Thomas Griffith stated that the environmental review should have either quantified the downstream greenhouse gas emissions from burning the transported gas or explained why it was unable to do so. Consequently, the court vacated the project’s Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and remanded the matter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

U.S. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown dissented in part, arguing that the commission was not required to consider emissions it lacked the statutory power to prevent. Following the decision, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center stated that the ruling would require the commission to revise its draft environmental review for another project, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. At the time of the report, a representative for the commission had not responded to requests for comment.