In January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to approve and issue a certificate to Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects (see FERC Approves $1.8B Leach & Rayne XPress Pipeline Projects). The two projects work hand in glove to move Marcellus/Utica gas all the way to the Gulf Coast (see Columbia Gas: $1.75B for 2 Projects to Send Marcellus Gas to Gulf). You might think (as we did) that when FERC granted the final certificate, that would be the end of the story. Start the bulldozers, begin building! But no, such is not the way it works in bureaucrat-land. It seems FERC also needed to issue a “Mother May I?” certificate to begin construction, which they did on Friday (amidst a flurry of other certificates issued)…
