D.C. Circuit to Review FERC Practice Called ‘Kafkaesque’ (1)

The D.C. Circuit will take a closer look at a federal energy agency’s review practice that has long frustrated natural gas pipeline challengers and was recently derided by one judge as a “Kafkaesque regime.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 5 agreed to rehear a case involving the Transcontinental Pipeline’s Atlantic Sunrise project, which cuts through Pennsylvania and connects to a broader East Coast network of natural gas infrastructure. Transco is a subsidiary of the Williams Cos. Inc.

The nonprofit Allegheny Defense Project, other environmental groups, and Pennsylvania landowners are ...