Sponsors (7)
The bill increases health, environmental, and procedural protections—especially for overburdened communities—by requiring lifecycle greenhouse gas accounting, mitigation planning, and clearer explanations from FERC, at the cost of higher compliance burdens, longer permitting timelines, and possible upward pressure on energy prices.
Residents in environmental-justice and overburdened communities (including racial/ethnic minorities, low-income, and urban communities) will get formal consideration of local pollution and health impacts in FERC gas project approvals and must be considered in mitigation planning, reducing local harms.
The public and regulators will get clearer climate information because FERC must quantify a project's greenhouse gas emissions (including upstream/downstream leakage) and treat projects emitting ≥100,000 tCO2e/yr as presumptively significant, enabling stronger scrutiny and mitigation of climate impacts.
Applicants must include practicable mitigation plans and FERC must attach practicable mitigation conditions or explain why not, increasing the likelihood that projects will actually reduce harms and giving the public clearer reasons for permitting decisions.
Energy consumers, especially middle-class and low-income households, could face higher energy prices if increased permitting costs or mitigation requirements are passed through or if stricter rules deter projects that would expand supply.
Permitting reviews at FERC could take longer, delaying energy and reliability improvement projects and potentially increasing project costs and the time before communities see benefits.
Certificate applicants (utilities and smaller developers) will face higher compliance and administrative costs to prepare required GHG quantifications and mitigation plans, which could burden smaller firms or raise overall project costs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FERC to quantify GHGs and evaluate environmental justice impacts, presume ≥100,000 tCO2e/yr significant, and require mitigation proposals and practicable conditions for certificated natural gas projects.
Requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to evaluate greenhouse gas (GHG) and environmental justice (EJ) impacts when deciding whether certificated natural gas projects meet the public convenience and necessity. The Commission must quantify reasonably foreseeable GHG emissions, presume projects emitting at least 100,000 metric tons CO2-equivalent per year are significant, require mitigation proposals with applications, and attach practicable mitigation conditions or explain why mitigation is impracticable while still weighing energy reliability and affordability.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Sean Casten · Last progress December 3, 2025