On July 23, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) granted FERC’s motion for a ninety-day stay of the court’s mandate in Allegheny Defense Project v. FERC. In Allegheny, the D.C. Circuit rejected FERC’s long-used practice of issuing “tolling orders” to grant itself more time to consider requests for rehearing (see July 1, 2020 issue of the WER). On July 6, 2020, FERC moved to stay for ninety days the D.C. Circuit’s mandate for the decision (which would have otherwise issued July 7, 2020), contending that a stay would give FERC time to assesses the D.C. Circuit’s opinion and would allow FERC and the Solicitor General to consider whether to petition the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari (see July 14, 2020 issue of the WER). Per the D.C. Circuit’s July 23 order, the mandate will be stayed through October 5, 2020, or, should FERC provide notice that a petition for writ of certiorari has been filed, until the Supreme Court issues its final disposition.
The D.C. Circuit’s order is available here.