Jan. 29: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's staff will host a technical conference to discuss its third-party contracting requirements and expectations for preparing an environmental impact statement for an Alaskan natural gas transportation project. The conference, which will be in Room 3M-2A at FERC headquarters at 888 First Street NE in Washington from 10 a.m. to noon EST, will not be transcribed and telephone participation is not available.
Why it matters: FERC will be the lead agency for conducting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and for preparing an EIS that consolidates environmental reviews of all federal agencies with regulatory and other responsibilities. This will be the opportunity for contractors with the relevant expertise and an interest in providing third-party contracting services to help FERC's environmental staff design and prepare processes to review applications for the anticipated project.
In particular, FERC's staff is interested in ways an outside contractor would help it plan and support public participation, coordinate the flow of information between lead and cooperating agencies, identify and analyze environmental issues associated with a large trans-Alaska gas pipeline project, and prepare an EIS that fully complies with NEPA.
In addition to the technical conference, the commission's staff is seeking statements of interest from qualified companies, including a capability statement of no more than 25 pages which summarizes the applicant's experience in projects of similar scope and complexity, prior NEPA experience and familiarity with FERC procedures, especially regarding third-party contractors. The capability statement also should detail the company's relevant expertise in Arctic pipeline construction and land restoration, pipeline engineering, geotechnical and seismic design, and consultation with Alaskan Native organizations.
Additional information is available by telephoning Laurence Sauter at (202) 502-8205 or Rich McGuire at (202) 502-6177.
