FERC Staff Issues Environmental Assessment on Impacts of Order No. 872 on QF Development

Docket No. RM19-15-002
Order No. 872

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) prepared an environmental assessment (EA) to assess the environmental impacts due to FERC’s adoption of revisions to its regulations in Order No. 872.  In Order No. 872, the Commission revised its regulations addressing the development of certain cogeneration and small power production facilities referred to as Qualifying Facilities (QFs) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA).  On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the reforms in Order No. 872 but remanded the order to the Commission because the court held that the Commission violated the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) by failing to prepare an EA.    

In accordance with the requirements of NEPA and the Commission’s implementing regulations under Title 18 Code of Federal Regulations Part 380 (18 C.F.R. pt. 380), Commission staff prepared the EA to comply with the Ninth Circuit’s opinion.  In the EA, Commission staff find that the reasonably foreseeable changes in the development of QFs as a result of Order No. 872 are speculative and impossible to accurately quantify.  Notwithstanding the speculative nature of the changes to the development of QFs, staff developed a set of assumptions and a methodology to attempt to quantify the impacts that Order No. 872 could have on QF development.

The conclusions and recommendations presented in the EA are those of the FERC staff.  The Commission will consider staff’s recommendations in a future order.