FERC Expanding Environmental Justice Efforts, Top Counsel Says

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will staff up and expand outreach to tribes and communities near natural gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas terminals, transmission lines, and other energy projects, the commission’s top environmental justice lawyer said Wednesday.

The commission will consider different “thresholds for identifying potentially impacted EJ communities” in response to recent court rulings and pressure from stakeholders, said Montina Cole, marking exactly one year into her role as the energy regulator’s first senior counsel for environmental justice and equity.

“The commission has needed to do better with respect to environmental justice and equity,” Cole said, speaking virtually to ...