Docket No. PL26-3-000
I concur. Today’s draft is a measured, practical step toward a more focused and efficient permitting process. Taking a hard look at how projects affect the people who live near them is central to the Commission’s responsibilities under the Natural Gas Act (NGA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and is one of my own priorities as a Commissioner. In my view, doing this work well and doing it efficiently are not competing goals. Public comment from the full range of stakeholders will help us determine how our reviews can become more timely while remaining thorough, legally durable, and tailored to the decisions Congress entrusted us to make.
The law governing environmental review has changed considerably, and our practices should keep pace. Congress recently directed agencies to produce more focused and timely environmental documents,1 and a unanimous Supreme Court confirmed that agencies may calibrate the depth of their review to how useful additional information would be to the decision at hand.2 A bipartisan proposal now before Congress shows that the national effort to improve federal environmental review is far from finished. Given all of this, it is only sensible to ask whether current practices meet the moment.
The draft focuses our review on the information we need to carry out our statutory responsibilities. The Commission will independently assess a project’s operational air emissions much as we have long assessed construction emissions: using equipment-specific data and anticipated operating schedules. Paired with information about where a facility is located, existing air quality in the area, and enforceable permit requirements, this approach will give the Commission and the public a clear picture of what that means for the surrounding community. It will inform our NGA public-interest determination and satisfy our NEPA obligations, without duplicating modeling the state air permitting agency already requires or routinely requiring additional modeling where the state Clean Air Act (CAA) permitting process requires none.
Drawing on state air CAA permits strengthens, rather than replaces the Commission’s independent review. Under the CAA, states play a central role in protecting local air quality through programs approved and overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency,3 and courts have recognized that an agency may account for protections imposed by another agency that Congress charged with regulating the effects at issue.4 We already take this approach with water resources by conducting our own analysis while drawing on the expertise of state regulators. State CAA permits will inform our independent judgment, not substitute for it.
Today’s action starts this inquiry; it does not end it. Although I believe the draft strikes a reasonable balance, I encourage commenters to address whether the Commission should require applicants to file in our docket the same materials they submit to state regulators.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
- 1See 42 U.S.C. § 4336a(e), (g); Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, Pub. L. No. 118-5, § 321, 137 Stat. 10, 38-46 (2023) (Builder Act).
- 2See Seven Cnty. Infrastructure Coal. v. Eagle Cnty., Colorado, 605 U.S. 168, 181 (2025). See also Sierra Club v. FERC, 153 F.4th 1295, 1311 (D.C. Cir. 2025) (“After Seven County, the era of searching NEPA review is over. . . .”).
- 3See 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401, 7410, 7475. The CAA declares in its statement of purpose that “air pollution control at its source is the primary responsibility of States and local governments.” Id. § 7401(a)(3). The CAA authorizes the EPA to regulate criteria air pollutants including particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and lead, also hazardous air pollutants, and other regulated emissions.
- 4Friends of Animals v. Burgum, 164 F.4th 738, 752 (9th Cir. 2026) (upholding Bureau of Land Management’s analysis of environmental effects, which accounted for protections imposed through state permitting to conclude that impacts would be negligible).