Facing pushback from lawmakers and industry, and from dissenters within its own ranks, the Democratic-led FERC has walked back the rollout of controversial updates to its policies for reviewing natural gas infrastructure. 

Natural Gas Pipelines

As part of its March monthly meeting, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted to seek comments on an update to its 1999 Certificate Policy Statement and an interim policy statement on assessing greenhouse gas emissions. FERC also designated the updated policies as “draft” statements as the agency seeks input from stakeholders.

FERC passed the two statements in February, with Chairman Richard Glick arguing that the updates are necessary to address legal vulnerabilities — evidenced by recent court rulings — in how the agency reviews natural gas...