Item A-3 | Presentation | Report
FERC’s Office of Public Participation (OPP) today issued its 2023 Annual Report, highlighting the office’s outreach efforts to bring people to FERC and bring FERC to the people. OPP’s mission is to empower, promote and support public voices in FERC proceedings.
Among OPP’s 2023 accomplishments:
- Participated in more than 160 meetings and events with constituents from Maine to California, Florida to Minnesota. These constituents range from landowners and Tribal entities to environmental justice leaders, university researchers, environmental and consumer advocates and small business owners.
- Developed video workshops on the natural gas pre-filing process, the fundamentals of intervening in a FERC proceeding and how to file comments at FERC.
- Developed more than 15 educational resource documents.
- Conducted direct and extensive outreach to constituents in 10 proceedings in the Gulf Coast, the Southeast and New England, and responded to more than 400 calls seeking information.
“Our Office of Public Participation is key to our continued efforts to involve members of the public in FERC proceedings that are important to them,” FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said. “Hearing from the public is essential to ensuring the Commission continues to make decisions that are in the public interest.”
The OPP report also noted that the most common questions focused on FERC processes and how to participate; how to address the post-construction impacts of facilities on private property; and how to engage with FERC about environmental and community impacts of energy projects in communities with environmental justice concerns.
OPP was formed in 2021 under congressional directives in the Federal Power Act to assist the public with understanding of and participation in Commission proceedings. Today’s report is OPP’s second annual report. Find out more about OPP here.
R24-10