FERC In The Road

This Week's Trend In Brief:

• Last month, FERC moved to ease barriers to building natural gas facilities and scale back environmental reviews, offering speed on paper that may not translate to certainty on the ground.

   

• Federal reforms mean little if projects become entangled in the complex web of state rules, permitting disputes, and community resistance, and energy companies must be prepared for that reality.

   

• State and local delays driven by political resistance and procedural hurdles can stretch timelines well beyond federal expectations, turning even approved projects into multi-year battles.

   

• At the same time, activists on both the left and right are deploying a well-honed playbook to stall or halt new projects, with litigation now a primary weapon when regulatory outcomes do not align with their interests.

   

• Companies hoping to move quickly must look beyond rulings and filings, preparing for a contested process by identifying stakeholders early, mapping risk, and building an early-warning system to prevent delays or disruptions.

Digging Deeper:

Last month, FERC moved to ease barriers to building natural gas facilities nationwide, aiming to increase flexibility and reduce regulatory burdens for certain project activities. FERC’s new order aims to accelerate the construction of natural gas infrastructure by removing key regulatory hurdles. Specifically, it temporarily waives limits that delay construction during legal challenges and raises cost thresholds for projects that can proceed without case-by-case approval. FERC followed up with a 20-page manual last week, detailing revised procedures for environmental reviews. This change, which won bipartisan support from all four commissioners, was widely viewed as a technical yet significant step toward permitting reform. While FERC is exploring ways to make these changes permanent to help meet rising electricity demand and shore up grid reliability, companies should see the reforms as a procedural shift, not a cure-all, in a landscape still defined by regulatory complexity, legal risk, and political uncertainty.

While the reforms reflect long-standing requests from industry groups seeking greater regulatory certainty, the path from federal approval to project completion remains fraught. Even as the Trump Administration promotes a renewed push for “energy dominance” and backs efforts to accelerate permitting, federal momentum alone does little to overcome entrenched resistance. Critics across the energy sector have warned that Trump’s proposed energy agenda, which prioritizes fossil fuels, rolls back climate regulations, and pulls incentives for renewables, has prompted skepticism about the Administration’s vision for America’s future energy mix. The projects needed to realize that vision continue to face challenges from inception to construction, and often long after federal approval is secured. This raises the stakes for companies that fail to anticipate or address opposition early. For those in the energy industry, preparing for every outcome now means going beyond regulatory filings and identifying key stakeholders, tracking activist activity, and understanding where legal or political friction is most likely to emerge.

Indeed, federal reforms mean little if projects become entangled in the complex web of state rules, permitting disputes, and community resistance, and energy companies must be prepared for that reality. Developers report that new projects are getting mired in an increasingly complex regulatory and local patchwork of state, county, and municipal permitting rules, making compliance more difficult and unpredictable. At the same time, local communities have emerged as a leading source of resistance to energy infrastructure, blocking or delaying pipelines, transmission lines, and renewable projects through lawsuits, public hearings, and zoning restrictions. Against that backdrop, FERC’s streamlined approvals may offer a faster on-ramp, but they stop short of resolving the ground-level complexities that shape project outcomes. Companies that overlook the competing realities on the ground risk being caught off guard, as local dynamics increasingly dictate the pace and viability of infrastructure development.

At the same time, activists on both the left and right are increasingly organizing against these projects, turning to litigation to delay or halt development when regulatory outcomes fall short of their goals. On the left, a climate activist industry that has become more professionalized and better funded over the past decade continues to drive on-the-ground opposition to projects, backed by a sophisticated national network that has spent years perfecting its playbook. On the right, a new wave of populist activists is emerging that is co-opting much of that playbook, using the same activist-tested strategies to combat new developments they believe would harm, rather than help, local communities and economies. Increasingly, both sides of the activist spectrum have turned to litigation as a means to stall or block projects at every stage of the approval process. For companies hoping to utilize FERC’s new rules and others like them, they must prepare for a regulatory process shaped not just by federal timelines but by coordinated opposition and legal challenges that can redefine the path forward at any moment.

FERC’s updated rules may signal a shift in Washington, but for companies navigating today’s infrastructure landscape, they are just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Regulatory relief at the federal level will not shield projects from the patchwork of state and local rules, nor from increasingly sophisticated activist campaigns that can stall progress long after permits are secured. To avoid costly disruptions or delays, companies must approach each project with the same level of coordination and foresight as their opposition, building coalitions early, monitoring emerging risks, and understanding key stakeholders to anticipate pressure points before they escalate. In today’s environment, public affairs professionals and the companies they represent cannot afford to operate on defense. They need a playbook of their own built to anticipate opposition, shape the narrative, and keep projects on track.

Trends in Energy is your weekly look at key trends affecting the energy industry, brought to you by the competitive intelligence experts at Delve. As the political and regulatory landscape continues to shift, reach out to learn how our insights can help you navigate these challenges.