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In their first appearance before congressional legislators, the five commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week answered questions on everything from changes to the National Environmental Policy Act to the U.S. transmission system (POLITICO’s E&E News ).

What’s going on: Speaking at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, the commissioners “addressed recent changes to streamline the agency’s environmental reviews, including by sidelining consideration of greenhouse gas emissions.”

• Asked about the changes the agency had made in response to a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that limited the scope of NEPA reviews, FERC Chairman Laura Swett said: “[W]e no longer analyze the indirect emissions from upstream production or downstream combustion. That in itself has cut down the time that is necessary for environmental review from staff in the building. … We also no longer use [greenhouse gas] emissions as a basis to require a much more resource-heavy environmental impact statement.”
• Congress is negotiating on potential NEPA reforms, something the NAM has long advocated.

Data centers: Swett and the commission’s senior Democrat, David Rosner, indicated they believe FERC has the authority to act on a proposal by Energy Secretary Chris Wright to “streamline the grid interconnection of large loads like data centers.”

• U.S. power demand is set to increase 32% over the next five years, due in large part to the growth of data centers to power artificial intelligence applications. The administration considers data centers critical national security assets.

Federal vs. state: Some legal experts are concerned that FERC’s implementation of Wright’s proposal could “cross into states’ turf,” but in a December order, the agency laid out what it sees as the divisions between states and the federal government.

• “States have exclusive jurisdiction over how the costs [are] assigned to eligible customers … [but] the Commission has exercised jurisdiction over the terms of certain interconnections to the transmission system,” the order reads.
• During the hearing, “Commissioners appeared open — to varying degrees — to expanding FERC’s authority over state regulators, depending on the type of infrastructure involved.
• Republican Commissioner Lindsay See said she was “more focused on cooperation [than] … mandates” with regard to interregional transmission, while Swett “strongly supported giving FERC greater power to override state objections to interregional pipelines.”