HR6378-119

What This Bill Does

The FERC Greenhouse Gas and Environmental Justice Policy Act changes how FERC reviews natural gas certificate applications. It adds mitigation-proposal information to certificate applications and requires FERC, when deciding whether a project is required by public convenience and necessity, to determine whether environmental effects are significant, whether significant effects can be mitigated, whether significant environmental effects outweigh project benefits, and whether the project is necessary for energy reliability and affordability. FERC must evaluate effects on environmental justice communities using the record, including existing public health stressors, project-related stressors, cumulative stressors, potential stressors, and factors identified through meaningful public engagement. FERC must quantify reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions using pipeline capacity, utilization, construction and operation, downstream combustion emissions, upstream emissions, and cumulative effects. The bill presumes projects with at least 100,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent have significant climate effects and uses 20-year global warming potentials from the most recent IPCC assessment for non-carbon dioxide gases. Applicants must submit mitigation proposals, and FERC must attach certificate conditions to mitigate climate and environmental justice harms where practicable or explain why mitigation below the significance threshold is not practicable.

Who Benefits and How

Environmental justice communities, climate advocates, public health advocates, and residents near natural gas infrastructure benefit because FERC would have to quantify emissions, examine cumulative stressors, consider meaningful community engagement, and condition certificates on mitigation where practicable. FERC Commissioners and staff gain a clearer statutory framework for climate and environmental justice findings.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Natural gas pipeline developers and certificate applicants bear added application, analysis, mitigation, and litigation burdens. FERC staff must conduct more detailed greenhouse gas and environmental justice review. Gas utilities, producers, and shippers may face slower or more conditioned infrastructure approvals. Project proponents must show benefits outweigh significant environmental effects and that the project is necessary for reliability and affordability.

Key Provisions

• Requires FERC certificate applications to include mitigation proposals for environmental effects.
• Requires FERC to decide whether significant environmental effects can be mitigated and whether they outweigh project benefits.
• Requires evaluation of environmental justice community effects, cumulative stressors, public health stressors, and public engagement factors.
• Requires quantification of reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions, including upstream, downstream, construction, operation, and cumulative effects.
• Presumes at least 100,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent is a significant climate effect.
• Requires certificate conditions for practicable mitigation or a detailed explanation when mitigation below the threshold is not practicable.