Landowners’ Right to Due Process in Rehearings at FERC Act of 2021

Landowners' Right to Due Process in Rehearings at FERC Act of 2021

This bill revises the rehearing process for petitioners aggrieved by an order issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with respect to natural gas pipeline projects.

Specifically, the bill sets forth a 60-day deadline for FERC to respond to a rehearing request from a petitioner. During this time, FERC is prohibited from authorizing construction-related activity that is related to the order, and the holder of a certificate of public convenience and necessity that is the subject of the order may not exercise the right of eminent domain to acquire land or other property to carry out the pipeline project.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4774 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4774

To amend the Natural Gas Act with respect to the rehearing process, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2021

   Mr. Malinowski (for himself, Mr. Casten, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. 
   Kuster, and Mr. Raskin) introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Natural Gas Act with respect to the rehearing process, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Landowners' Right to Due Process in 
Rehearings at FERC Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. NATURAL GAS ACT REHEARINGS.

    Section 19(a) of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717r(a)) is amended 
to read as follows:
    ``(a) Rehearings.--
            ``(1) In general.--Any person, State, municipality, or 
        State commission aggrieved by an order issued by the Commission 
        in a proceeding under this Act to which such person, State, 
        municipality, or State commission is a party may apply for a 
        rehearing within 30 days after the issuance of such order. The 
        application for rehearing shall set forth specifically the 
        ground or grounds upon which such application is based. Upon 
        such application the Commission shall have power to grant or 
        deny rehearing or to abrogate or modify its order without 
        further hearing. No proceeding to review any order of the 
        Commission shall be brought by any person unless such person 
        shall have made application to the Commission for a rehearing 
        thereon. Until the record in a proceeding shall have been filed 
        in a court of appeals, as provided in subsection (b), the 
        Commission may at any time, upon reasonable notice and in such 
        manner as it shall deem proper, modify or set aside, in whole 
        or in part, any finding or order made or issued by it under the 
        provisions of this Act.
            ``(2) Deadline.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Except as provided in 
                subparagraph (B), the Commission shall act on the 
                merits of an application filed under paragraph (1) by 
                the date that is 90 days after the date on which the 
                applicable order is issued.
                    ``(B) Lack of quorum.--If the Commission fails to 
                act on the merits of an application filed under 
                paragraph (1) by the date that is 90 days after the 
                date on which the applicable order is issued because 
                the Commission lacks a quorum on such date, the 
                Commission shall act on the merits of the application 
                by the date that is 30 days after the date on which the 
                Commission establishes a quorum.
                    ``(C) Failure to act.--If the Commission fails to 
                act on the merits of an application filed under 
                paragraph (1) by the applicable deadline under 
                subparagraph (A) or (B), the application shall be 
                deemed to be denied.
            ``(3) Certain orders.--
                    ``(A) Prohibition.--With respect to an order issued 
                under section 3 or 7, during the covered period--
                            ``(i) the Commission may not authorize any 
                        construction-related activity that is related 
                        to the order; and
                            ``(ii) notwithstanding section 7(h), a 
                        holder of a certificate of public convenience 
                        and necessity that is the subject of the order 
                        may not exercise the right of eminent domain to 
                        acquire land or other property to carry out an 
                        activity authorized by the order.
                    ``(B) Covered period.--For purposes of subparagraph 
                (A), the term `covered period' means the period that 
                begins on the date on which the applicable order is 
                issued and ends--
                            ``(i) on the date that is 30 days after 
                        such date, if no application for rehearing with 
                        respect to the order is filed under paragraph 
                        (1) by such date; or
                            ``(ii) if such an application is so filed, 
                        on the date on which the Commission act on the 
                        merits of the application, or the application 
                        is deemed to be denied, as applicable.''.
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