Attorney General JB McCuskey is leading a 12-state coalition urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve a proposed natural gas pipeline project in New Mexico and to reject efforts to widen federal environmental review beyond the pipeline itself.
The States support the Transwestern Pipeline Company’s Green Chile Project, a nearly 18-mile lateral in New Mexico. FERC staff reviewed the project and concluded its “environmental effects would not be significant.” Opponents of the project are asking the Commission to review issues pertaining to the end use of the gas produced for data center facilities and their onsite energy generation—which are outside its authority to regulate. The coalition says that position conflicts with federal law and that the stakes reach well beyond New Mexico.
“Natural gas is a cornerstone of West Virginia’s economy and of the economies of gas-producing states across the country. If a short pipeline can be held up because opponents want regulators to reach outside their purview and study all the facilities who may use it, the result is more delay, higher cost and more uncertainty for the producers, workers and communities who depend on this infrastructure. That is not what Congress intended, nor is it what the Supreme Court said the law requires,” Attorney General McCuskey said.
The States’ comments are built on the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, which held that environmental review should focus on “the project at hand” and need not address the effects of separate projects. The States also point to a recent D.C. Circuit decision, Sierra Club v. FERC (Cumberland), which applied that reasoning to a pipeline supplying a power plant and rejected a demand to review the two together. The coalition argues that the same logic applies to the New Mexico pipeline project.
The letter notes that the project serves national priorities, citing a 2025 Executive Order that identifies natural gas pipelines and laterals as part of the data center infrastructure the federal government has made a priority to build out.
Joining West Virginia on the comments are the attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Carolina. The comments were filed in FERC Docket Nos. CP26-80-000 and CP82-534-000 and can be read here.
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