Several ABRA members were among organizations jointly filing an amicus brief last week in a case before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the practice of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to forestall judicial review of its orders, a practice known as “tolling orders.”  The brief, filed in a case involving the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, notes:

FERC consistently grants itself an indefinite extension of time in which to act on the merits of such requests, while locking requesters out of court. As its public dockets reveal, FERC does not

reserve this practice for only the most complex of cases; it tolls virtually all requests for rehearing of all types of orders—certificate orders, orders authorizing construction, and even tolling orders themselves. Over the past two years, FERC tolled every timely filed rehearing request it received in proceedings in which it issued a decision, spanning all four of FERC’s regulatory programs—natural gas, hydropower, electricity, and oil.

            A copy of the brief is available here.

ABRA Members File Brief with DC Circuit on FERC Tolling Order Policy
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