Lafleur

FERC in an order Friday upheld its decision on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), striking down rehearing requests from numerous environmental groups opposed to the 303-mile, 2 million Dth/d greenfield Appalachia-to-Southeast natural gas project.

FERC has authorized Florida Southeast Connection LLC to construct and operate its proposed Okeechobee Lateral project, which would provide up to 400,000 Dth/d of firm transportation service to the Okeechobee Clean Energy Center in south central Florida.

FERC reasserted its independence and kept to a fuel-neutral path when it voted unanimously last week to reject a controversial notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) by the Department of Energy (DOE) to change the nation’s grid reliability and resilience policies, according to Commissioners Neil Chatterjee and Cheryl LaFleur.

In a pair of orders handed down late Friday, FERC approved the Appalachian-to-Southeast Atlantic Coast (ACP) and Mountain Valley pipelines (MVP) in a rare split decision.

FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur said this week she hopes the Commission receives many public comments over a Department of Energy (DOE) proposal to provide reliability and resiliency compensation to coal and nuclear baseload generators, on the grounds that “a lot of people will be affected by this.”

Two empty seats remained on the podium Wednesday for FERC’s first monthly public meeting since January, but the recently reconstituted quorum was in attendance, approving three natural gas items and a series of items unrelated to gas. The panel in place promised continued action even as it awaits confirmation of two more members.

Two empty seats remained on the podium Wednesday for FERC’s first monthly public meeting since January, but the recently reconstituted quorum was in attendance, approving three natural gas items and a series of items unrelated to gas. The panel in place promised continued action even as it awaits confirmation of two more members.

FERC’s new — and temporary — Chairman, Neil Chatterjee, is confident that the work done by a skeleton crew during the Commission’s months without a quorum will help him, former Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur and Commissioner Robert Powelson to quickly begin to address a backlog of applications.

Colette Honorable, who has served at FERC since late 2014, announced late Friday that she will leave the Commission when her term expires at the end of next month, a move that would leave the already quorumless panel with a single member — Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur.