The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) have prepared a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Venice Extension Project (or Project).

The proposed Project would include:

The EIS has been prepared in compliance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality regulations for implementing NEPA (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 1500–1508), and FERC regulations implementing NEPA (18 CFR 380).

The conclusions and recommendations presented in the EIS are those of the FERC environmental staff.

FERC staff concludes that construction and operation of the Project would result in limited adverse environmental impacts.  Most adverse environmental impacts would be temporary (during construction) or short-term (returning to background levels within 3 years following construction), but some permanent impacts on air quality, although not significant, would occur from Project operation.  This determination is based on our review of the information provided by Texas Eastern and further developed from environmental information requests; scoping; literature research; a consideration of potential alternatives; and contacts with federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders.  With implementation of Texas Eastern’s proposed impact avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures, as well as their adherence to our recommendations, we conclude that Project effects would be reduced to less-than-significant levels, except for climate change impacts that are not characterized in the EIS as significant or insignificant.  

The Comission will take into consideration staff’s recommendations in the EIS when they make a decision on the Project.

This page was last updated on September 16, 2022