Don Santa, president and CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, today released the following statement on the introduction of Representative Pompeo’s legislation to improve the natural gas transmission pipeline permitting process:
“INGAA appreciates Rep. Pompeo’s interest in improving the process for permitting interstate natural gas pipelines, and supports enactment of this legislation.
“The Pompeo bill is consistent with the principal recommendation from an INGAA Foundation report on permitting released in December of 2012. The report found that, while the FERC does an effective job of reviewing applications for authority to build new pipelines, the Commission currently lacks the authority to enforce permitting deadlines for other federal and state agencies. The lack of enforceable permitting deadlines increasingly is causing pipeline project delays. Providing clear permitting deadline authority will add certainty to the process and encourage timely decision-making.
“We urge the Congress to enact this legislation, which improves upon amendments enacted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.”
