American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2020 - 17

IndustryDigest
Filing the lawsuits under consumer
protection rather than public nuisance
laws is significant, published reports
indicate, because it will make it more
difficult for defendants to move them
into federal jurisdiction. One report
quotes University of Houston law
professor Victor Flatt saying, "There is
less likelihood of a federal statutory
pre-emption. Consumer protection is
definitely, historically, a state thing."
Defendants in numerous other state
and city lawsuits seeking climate
damages from oil companies in public
nuisance lawsuits have attempted to
shift them to federal courts because in
2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the
Clean Air Act blocked litigants from
using federal common law against
greenhouse gas polluters. However, last
October, SCOTUS refused to stay state
proceedings in climate lawsuits brought
by Rhode Island, Colorado and the city
of Baltimore (AOGR, November 2019,
pg. 83).
The two lawsuits also are the first
climate cases to specifically mention the
disproportionate impact of global
warming on low-income communities
and people of color, the published
reports add, another significant
departure from other climate complaints,
according to Loyola University law
professor Karen Sokol. ❒

FERC Order Will Stop
Pipeline Construction
With Pending Appeals
WASHINGTON-The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission has

announced it will no longer allow
pipelines to begin construction until
after all requests to rehear the order
approving such a project are dealt with.
An instant final rule issued on June
9 precludes FERC from issuing
authorizations to proceed with
construction on natural gas facilities
authorized pursuant to Sections 3 or 7
of the Natural Gas Act "until either the
time for filing a request for rehearing
of such order has passed (without a
request being filed) or the commission
has acted on the merits of any
rehearing request."
Prior to this order, the Energy
Equipment & Infrastructure Alliance
(EEIA) explains, FERC would issue
authorizations to proceed with
construction, including on lands
subject to eminent domain challenges,
while the challenge was being
considered. "We believe this opens the
door to objecting landowners
coordinating and stringing together
multiple sequential challenges,
potentially slowing construction starts
significantly," EEIA worries.
In announcing the new rule, FERC
Chairman Neil Chatterjee says it builds
on two previous agency efforts to
increase transparency and fairness to the
public. In September 2019, Chatterjee
recalls, he pledged FERC would strive
to act on landowner-related rehearing
requests within 30 days. Then in
February, he announced a new rehearing
section within FERC's Office of the
General Counsel to help ensure
rehearing requests were considered as
quickly as possible.
Although the order does not take
effect until 30 days after it is published

in the Federal Register, Chatterjee says
FERC will not authorize construction
to proceed pending rehearing before
that time.
In a related, though perhaps moot,
development, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit
issued an opinion on June 30 that, the
Sierra Club claims, forbids FERC from
issuing tolling orders. ❒

Gas Storage Levels
Exceed 3 Tcf In June
WASHINGTON-Underground
natural gas storage in the United States
stood at 3.078 trillion cubic feet on June
26, 17.8% above the five year average,
according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. That was
up 714 Bcf more than a year ago, when
gas storage stood at 2.364 Tcf.
According to EIA, gas storage in the
East Region was 639 Bcf on June 26,
18.1% above the five-year average and
121 Bcf more than it was a year ago.
Gas storage in the Midwest Region
stood at 740 Bcf on June 26, 24.2%
above the five-year average and 181 Bcf
more than a year ago.
In the Mountain Region, EIA says,
gas storage was 173 Bcf on June 26,
6.8% above the five-year average and
41 Bcf more than a year ago.
Gas storage in the Pacific Region
was 304 Bcf on June 26, 5.9% above
the five-year average and up 52 Bcf
from a year ago.
In the South-Central Region, gas
storage levels on June 26 were 1.222
Tcf, 19.2% above the five-year average
and up 319 Bcf from a year ago. ❒

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Toll Free: 800-870-1926
JULY 2020 17
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2020

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