The 1938 Law Running Your Pipeline Projects Was Never Updated

The last 18 months have been about as good as it gets for anyone who moves Marcellus and Utica molecules. President Trump's Executive Order 14154 killed the Biden LNG export pause on day one. FERC rewrote its environmental review procedures in June 2025 to speed things up. And FERC finally drove a stake through Order No. 871, the Biden-era rule that let Big Green freeze construction on an approved pipeline just by filing an appeal (see FERC Upholds Eliminating Order 871 – Pipeline Challenge Rule). Here's the uncomfortable part, and a new Congressional Research Service report (full copy below) lays it out plainly: not one of those wins is written into law. Every single one is an executive order or an agency policy choice. Which means a different president and a different FERC can undo all of it — using exactly the same authority.

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