In its last monthly meeting under the Trump administration, FERC on Tuesday voted not to move forward on a plan to revisit which agency actions should require a detailed review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Dept. of Energy

A proposed notice of inquiry presented to the commissioners would have potentially expanded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s list of “categorical exclusions.” Listed categorical exclusions are types of actions deemed unlikely to have a significant environmental impact and thus do not require FERC to prepare an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment.

Among other things, under the proposal FERC would have established a process for reviewing and potentially adopting categorical exclusions used by other...