FERC`s view of itself: FERC`s authority over the licensing process or why third party contracting rules have been difficult to implement
- Troutman Sanders, Washington, DC (United States)
Following the Supreme Court`s decisions in Escondido and Tacoma, it is sometimes difficult to remember FERC`s view of its role in the licensing process and how that view has shaped FERC`s adoption of the NEPA review process. To this day, FERC struggles with reconciling its rules with the NEPA review process. A short historical review of FERC`s efforts in implementing NEPA helps in understanding why FERC does what it does in the environmental context. The first time FERC (then the Federal Power Commission ({open_quotes}FPC{close_quotes})) announced its role in implementing NEPA was in the Commission`s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in response to the Council on Environmental Quality ({open_quotes}CEQ{close_quotes}) regulations in 1979. In the preamble, the commission noted that executive departments were bound by CEQ regulations, but the Commission, as an independent regulatory agency, was not. In its Notice, the Commission stated its concern that under the CEQ referral process, the FPC`s environmental review may be subject to a CEQ review outside of the Commission`s NEPA process.
- OSTI ID:
- 219994
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9507190--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The FERC`s consideration of EMF in the licensing of hydroelectric project transmission lines
NEPA: where have we been and where are we going