Commissioner Allison Clements Statement
April 15, 2021
Docket No. CP20-487-000
Order: C-4
I concur in today’s order because it appropriately adopts a generous approach to late intervention, countering the restrictive approach announced in Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., LLC, 162 FERC ¶ 61,167, at PP 50-51 (2018). Limiting participation in Commission proceedings through overly strict application of our late intervention rules[1] damages our decision-making process and the public interest. I support the approach adopted in today’s decision, which applies our rules flexibly to allow broad participation in Commission proceedings by all who may be affected by the outcome. Broad participation results in a fuller record and the expression of a wider range of perspectives, both of which lead to better-informed and more durable decisions fulfilling the Commission’s obligations.
Of course, our more flexible approach must be applied across the board. Today we grant late intervention to a sophisticated natural gas company. Individuals and groups lacking the resources and familiarity with the Commission that Enbridge possesses should find equal welcome in our proceedings. In assessing whether there is good cause for late intervention, we should consider in each instance the facts and circumstances leading to the late intervention. For example, we have heard in our listening sessions for the new Office of Public Participation that some individuals and remote communities lack access to the Internet and other sources of information that would allow them to learn of a proposed new project or understand how they could be affected by it. We have also heard in the listening sessions how difficult it is for those lacking experience in Commission proceedings to understand and navigate our electronic filing procedures and intervention rules. We know from unfortunate experience that individuals and communities could learn for the first time what a project’s impacts are – and what the risk to their own interests may be – when air or water pollutants are suddenly released during the project’s construction or start-up. We should be looking for ways to open our doors to those whose communities and very lives are affected by our decisions. The generous and flexible approach to late intervention we adopt in this order will help unlock the doors.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(d)(1) (2020).