The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) said Wednesday 10 federal agencies have signed an agreement aimed at improving interagency coordination and cooperation in the permitting of natural gas transmission pipelines.

The 10 agencies have agreed to initiate discussions about gas pipeline projects earlier in the permitting process and conduct simultaneous rather than sequential reviews to determine whether a project complies with the environmental and historic preservation requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.. These actions, the task force believes, will help expedite the approval process for new gas pipelines and expansions. The agency agreement takes effect immediately.

President Bush signed an executive order in May 2001 calling for the interagency task force to be set up to explore ways to speed up the permitting process for energy-related projects, including gas pipelines. The administration’s energy task force recommended the creation of the task force in the national energy strategy that was issued in the spring of 2001.

The final interagency accord, which was signed by the agencies in late August but not announced until this week, calls for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be the lead agency when conducting environmental reviews of gas pipeline projects. As the lead, FERC will notify the other agencies of upcoming pipe projects and will establish a schedule for a project’s review. The participating agencies will strive to conduct their permit review activities on a “concurrent, rather than sequential, basis with the objective of avoiding unnecessary delays in the process,” the agreement said.

FERC also will encourage pipeline applicants to establish and maintain an “electronic web-based repository” of all filings with “local, state and federal agencies” related to their projects, making them easily available to participating agencies.

The CEQ, which heads the task force, will seek to resolve any disputes that may arise between participating agencies within 30 days of receiving written notice of a disagreement. CEQ recommendations on settling disputes “will be taken into account by the lead agency,” according to the agreement. “Any recommendation not accepted by the lead or participating agencies will have to be fully explained in writing to the chairman of the CEQ.”

Parties to the agreement include the departments of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation and Energy; the Environmental Protection Agency, the CEQ, Army Corps of Engineers, FERC and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. A copy of the interagency agreement can be found at www.etf.energy.gov.

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