When FERC Saved Its Most Successful Action in History—From Itself

On September 12, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) terminated a Notice of Inquiry that it opened in 2018 regarding interstate natural gas pipelines—a momentous action by the agency. 1 The Commission left standing its extraordinary 1999 Certificate Policy Statement, which capped two decades of hard work for the entire US natural gas industry. 2 It is no hyperbole, in my opinion, to call that spare and bipartisan 1999 Certificate Policy Statement (29 pages with only a mild two‐page dissent) FERC's most successful action in its history. Future FERC Commissioners nearly undermined that success in a highly partisan fashion in 2022. But FERC ultimately resisted that fate. Its September termination preserved the 1999 Certificate Policy Statement without modification. Such a resolution is a veritable case study in what makes US interstate natural gas regulation so unique and fruitful for US consumers and industry. It also illustrates how readily such effectiveness can be undone when those seeking to expand regulatory powers blur longstanding legislative limits in the pursuit of new public policies.