Late Tuesday, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a rule to protect landowners in energy projects in the country, which could delay some natural gas projects in the country.
Landowners affected by natural gas pipeline or liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant development is protected by the rule which forbids construction until FERC acts on requests on rehearing to get to any decisions for a permit, even when a project has all other certifications and permissions to start construction.
FERC said that it aims to answer rehearing requests within 30 days.
Analysts at Height Capital Markets estimated the rule could delay the start of any construction for several months.
Prior to the rule, some past rehearing requests involved complex issues that required more than 30 days to resolve, which resulted in FERC issuing tolling orders for more time to consider requests.
FERC had also granted a project to proceed with building a pipe before deciding on rehearing process in the past.
