Sponsors (5)
The bill tightens environmental, climate, and environmental‑justice review for energy infrastructure—strengthening protections, mitigation, and transparency for affected communities and climate outcomes—while increasing compliance costs, permitting delays, and the risk of constrained energy projects or centralized decision-making.
Residents in environmental-justice communities will get formal evaluations of disproportionate harms from proposed energy projects, reducing the likelihood that pollution burdens remain concentrated in low-income, racial-ethnic minority, and tribal communities.
Communities near proposed projects will see stronger pollution protections because applicants must propose mitigation and FERC must attach practicable mitigation conditions, increasing the chance of real-world controls and community safeguards.
All Americans benefit from more climate-informed permitting because FERC must quantify reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from certificated projects, which can reduce future emissions and improve planning.
Energy companies and project applicants will face higher compliance costs and likely longer permitting timelines from additional analyses and mitigation requirements, increasing project costs and administrative burdens for utilities and developers.
Taxpayers and middle-class families could face higher energy prices or reliability risks because projects emitting ≥100,000 tCO2e/year are presumed significant, potentially blocking or delaying infrastructure needed for energy supply.
Utilities and certain technology providers may be disadvantaged and face more litigation because analyses must use 20-year global warming potential (GWP) values that raise the calculated climate impact of short‑lived climate pollutants.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs FERC to require quantified GHG estimates, EJ impact assessments, and practicable mitigation when issuing Natural Gas Act section 7 certificates, presuming ≥100,000 tCO2e/yr is significant.
Official title: Confirm and clarify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's obligation to assess and mitigate the impacts to climate change and environmental justice communities from projects approved pursuant to the Natural Gas Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress December 3, 2025
Requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to explicitly evaluate greenhouse gas emissions, environmental effects, and impacts on environmental justice communities when deciding whether to issue certificates for natural gas and related projects. Applicants must quantify reasonably foreseeable GHG emissions, propose practicable mitigation, and FERC must explain approvals where significant or unmitigable effects remain; the bill presumes projects emitting at least 100,000 metric tons CO2-equivalent per year have a significant climate effect. Defines key terms (certificate, environmental effect, environmental justice community, proposed action) and standardizes greenhouse gas conversion using IPCC 20-year global warming potentials. The change integrates climate and environmental-justice criteria into the Natural Gas Act's "public convenience and necessity" determination for certificated actions under section 7.