Thank you, Chairman Phillips and the Staff team, for organizing today’s event.
We have a really impressive set of panelists. It’s an honor to have this conversation at FERC, and I’m glad we’re having it.
I want to particularly welcome the members of communities who are impacted by the Commission’s decisions, front-line and fence-line environmental justice communities, who are serving as panelists today and also joining us. I wish all of you would be talking because success today depends on us hearing what you’re saying and hearing from all of you. I know some of you are joining us from Freeport, Texas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Monroe County, West Virginia. We appreciate it.
Since I joined the Commission two and a half years ago, I have had a keen interest in the questions that we’re teeing up today. How can the Commission better incorporate environmental justice and equity considerations into our decisions? Also, how can we assure that environmental justice community voices are genuinely heard in Commission proceedings? And how can we best avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on environmental justice communities? I admit I am weary because we are talking about these issues a lot, and I am anxious for the answers to these questions to get translated into the actions that the Commission takes.
But we have taken these essential first steps. Under former Chairman Glick’s leadership, I helped create FERC’s Office of Public Participation. At that time, environmental justice community representatives and environmental justice experts shared invaluable insights with us during listening sessions and a forum to inform OPP’s design, and I am confident those insights continue to inform OPP’s development. We also developed an Equity Action Plan and expanded consideration of environmental justice impacts in environmental documents under NEPA. Chair Phillips mentioned the Senior Counsel role, and I’m glad he has filled it with Conrad — congratulations on that role; it’s an important position to have here at the agency.
But I know from conversations with many of you and others concerned about these issues that there is a lot of work ahead for the Commission.
So I have three hopes for today:
First, I hope to learn from all of you. For those in front-line communities, I hope you will tell us about the environmental injustices you have experienced. What experiences have you had with the project planning process, and what have you learned from those experiences? Are there certain types of actions project sponsors could take that could make those experiences and engagement better? Similar for project developers – what have your experiences been, and where have you found practices that have been successful, or that could use some improvement?
Second, I hope we come out of these conversations with tangible solutions to advance the Commission’s obligations to consider environmental justice in our decisions. I encourage all panelists to provide us with concrete ideas and back them up in your comments to the roundtable after this event. It can be a bulleted point list if that is easier to get done than a full set of comments.
Third, I hope this dialogue represents a beginning, not an end, of our conversation. This forum is not an end unto itself, and I want to ensure that this is not a check-the-box exercise. I want our panelists to keep us accountable beyond today. While, of course, the onus is on this Commission to translate your input into outcomes, I ask you to please keep up the outreach and the work. As you are able, provide written comments in the record, call for meetings with Commission Staff and with Commissioners’ offices (they can be virtual), and please encourage others to do the same. I know it’s a lot of work to do, and I know it’s a burden. I really appreciate the engagement.
I think that we have a real opportunity here. Thoughtfully incorporating environmental justice into our decisions is not a day-long exercise. It is an agency-wide, years-long commitment. So, while I remain weary, I am certainly encouraged by where we are today.