Pipeline Litigation in Ohio

In looking at a petition filed by a group of landholders seeking a preliminary injunction against the construction of a nearby interstate natural gas pipeline, a federal district court in Ohio reached the same conclusion as had a federal district court in Virginia in December, namely, that federal district courts are without jurisdiction to entertain appeals of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate decisions with respect to pipeline projects.

In requesting that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, enjoin Nexus Gas Transmission, LLC, from proceeding with its plans for a new pipeline, the property owners argued that there were various flaws in FERC’s environmental impact statement, upon which its certificate approval had rested.

The court, however, found that it was without subject matter jurisdiction to review the landowners’ claims, inasmuch as the Natural Gas Act (NGA) lays out very specific instructions on how an aggrieved party may challenge a gas pipeline certificate order issued by FERC, which directives do not provide for hearings at the federal district court level. Instead, the court said, the NGA is very explicit in requiring that disagreements about FERC certificate orders be taken back to the FERC itself first, through a petition for rehearing. If the party is still not satisfied, the next step under the NGA is to go to a federal court of appeals, not a district court.

The district court in Ohio emphasized that because the NGA vests circuit courts of appeal with exclusive jurisdiction to review FERC actions, there is “no area of review, whether relating to final or preliminary orders, available in the district court.” (Case No:5:17cv1005)