The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently lauded the potential effectiveness and transparency in bipartisan legislation aimed at tailoring the permitting procedure for natural gas pipelines by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Introduced by Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Angus King (I-ME), Senate Bill 1844, the Coordinating Interagency Review of Natural Gas Infrastructure Act of 2017, allows specific natural gas initiatives to come under FERC’s authority, an API release said.
“Promoting certainty in the natural gas pipeline permitting process is a win for American workers, consumers, and the environment,” Khary Cauthen, API’s senior director of federal relations, said in the release. “Maintaining and expanding our natural gas pipeline infrastructure will help increase the use of clean natural gas that has supported millions of jobs, lowered energy costs for consumers, and driven carbon emissions throughout the U.S. economy down to levels not seen in nearly 25 years."
Cauthen added that the FERC process is comprehensive but not entirely streamlined.
“This important legislation will help promote infrastructure projects across the country by encouraging greater coordination, transparency, efficiency, and certainty in the permit review process,” Cauthen said in the release.
API said results of a study it commissioned with ICF, a Washington, D.C.-area consulting and technology services provider, revealed that the natural gas industry sustained over 4 million jobs in 2015 and is predicted to support 6 million positions by 2040.
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