Meet the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

First and foremost, FERC is an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that regulates the interstate transmission of fracked gas and electricity. With regard to the latter, it oversees the interstate market for wholesale electricity sales and ensures the reliability of high-voltage interstate transmission systems, aka “the grid.” As the country races to modernize and build out the grid—made all the more urgent by the AI boom and much-needed changes to our energy mix—the agency has a crucial role to play in ensuring affordability. In 2024, it rolled out a new transmission rule, Order No. 1920, in order to help with this transition, outlining guidance on how utilities, in partnership with their states, can allocate the costs for these new transmission projects, which often cross state lines and grid regions.

For gas, FERC largely regulates what happens to the fuel after it’s been fracked from the ground but before it’s delivered directly to customers. As Gillian Giannetti, an attorney in NRDC’s Climate & Energy program, puts it, FERC “oversees the interstate highway system” of gas as it crosses state lines and moves in and out of individual state jurisdictions, as well as the construction of terminals that export liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas.

FERC is also notable for what it doesn’t do. “Importantly, FERC doesn’t oversee decisions on fracking, gas power plants, or the construction of oil pipelines, all of which are reviewed at the state level,” Giannetti says. And while the agency has the power to determine whether a gas terminal does or doesn’t get built, “it doesn’t get to decide whether the U.S. actually exports any gas through a FERC-approved terminal,” she adds. “While FERC reviews applications for the infrastructure, the Department of Energy has the exclusive authority to decide whether—and to where—we export gas.”

The agency is composed of five commissioners who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for staggered five-year terms. The president selects a FERC chairperson from the five commissioners and can change the selection at any time; the current FERC chairman is Laura Swett. To help maintain FERC’s bipartisan identity, no more than three of the five commissioners can be members of the same political party. “Historically, FERC has been apolitical,” Giannetti says. “Most decisions are unanimous.” But even if the commissioners try to refrain from appearing biased in their decision-making, they’re still susceptible to pressure from political and business interests.

U.S. energy policy has long been tilted toward making it easier to develop gas and LNG, notwithstanding the consequences for our climate. Natural gas, despite what the fossil fuel industry would have you believe, isn’t clean. Gas production is a notorious source of methane, which has 80 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide for the first 20 years of its release into the atmosphere. Pipelines transport most gas from its source, and a big part of FERC’s mission is to review and approve or reject applications for major gas pipelines and LNG export terminals.

The agency bases these decisions on whether the proposals are in accordance with the Natural Gas Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, which mandate that any new projects be consistent with the public interest. These reviews have historically been way too deferential to the gas industry, Giannetti notes, and have led to numerous legal actions taken against the agency on behalf of citizens and environmental groups. Too often, she says, “FERC has simply taken a gas company’s word that a project will help the climate, promote environmental justice, respect private property, and ensure national security, regardless of the volume of quality of evidence to the contrary. This is what has led FERC to lose over and over and over again in court.”

In 2021, after multiple rounds of inquiry and public engagement, FERC finalized regulations to address some of these failings. Order No. 871 temporarily paused the authorization of methane gas pipeline or LNG export facility construction until the agency reviewed a pending challenge. The order provided basic protections to communities and landowners grappling with the siting of this dirty infrastructure in their backyards.

Four years later, under an administration that denies the climate crisis and is instead feigning an energy emergency in order to fast-track fossil fuel projects, FERC abruptly changed course. In January 2025, FERC’s just-released environmental justice explainer was scrubbed from its website (you can still view it here). In June 2025, FERC suspended Order No. 871 for a year. In October 2025, it went further, permanently rescinding most of Order No. 871. FERC is currently evaluating whether to expand the types of pipeline and LNG projects that can be completed without even having to go through a full application. 

“These protections were issued to prevent gas companies from recklessly seizing land or beginning construction before communities could challenge a FERC approval,” said Giannetti. “By rescinding them, FERC irreparably harms communities and undermines its integrity by selling out to the fossil fuel industry.”

For clean energy advocates like Giannetti, FERC’s backtracking on its climate and environmental justice commitments is a highly disappointing, though not entirely surprising, turn of events. “We need strong energy leadership more than ever. But unfortunately, FERC is abandoning a set of reasonable, measured, commonsense reforms, precisely when the gas industry is more powerful than ever.” 

Clean energy advocates vow to keep the pressure up and to make sure FERC doesn’t abdicate its responsibilities under federal law to represent the public interest. Indeed, the Natural Gas Act explicitly requires the agency to evaluate whether a project is in the public interest. “Clearly, relevant public interest factors include a project’s impacts on climate change, environmental justice, private property rights, and national security,” Giannetti says. “And even if a project is approved, it’s critical to ensure that construction occurs in the most environmentally responsible manner.”

So what if FERC doesn’t meet this responsibility by reinstating and expanding on these much-needed and overdue reforms? She puts it plainly: “It will continue to lose in court.”