On December 19, 2025, Constitution filed a Petition with FERC asking the Commission to:
- re-issue its 2014 order granting Constitution a certificate of public convenience and necessity to build the pipeline; and
- re-affirm its 2019 order declaring that DEC waived its right to deny the 401 water quality certification.
On January 8, 2026, FERC issued a Notice of Constitution’s December 19, 2025 Petition and set January 29, 2026 at 5 pm as the deadline for intervening even though landowners and other interested agencies and municipalities had not yet been formally notified of this proceeding.
FERC must reject or deny this Petition because the two orders Constitution wants FERC to re-issue and re-affirm were vacated by the Second Circuit in 2021. That means the orders are null and void. Since the orders no longer exist, they cannot legally be re-issued or re-affirmed.
In addition, the Second Circuit instructed FERC to “dismiss the agency proceedings[,]” which it has failed to do. On January 13, 2026, New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) sent a letter to FERC demanding that the dockets be closed by January 23, 2026, or it would take further action. On January 14, 2026, Stop the Pipeline joined in this request. On January 16, 2026, Earth Justice filed a letter on behalf of a number of environmental groups.
On January 23, 2026, FERC issued an Order on Remand, which described the procedural history and “confirm[ed] that the proceedings referenced in the caption of this order are dismissed.”
On February 23, 2026, the OAG filed a request for rehearing on behalf of the DEC, the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic (PELC) filed a request for rehearing on behalf of STP, and Earth Justice filed a request for rehearing on behalf of a number of environmental groups. The requests for rehearing say that FERC cannot legally consider the 2025 Petition to reissue the 2014 Certificate Order and reaffirm the 2019 Waiver Order.
In its request for rehearing, STP argues that the Commission must reject the December 19, 2025 Petition filed by the Constitution Pipeline Company in order to comply with the Second Circuit’s 2021 Vacatur Order and FERC’s dismissal of the proceedings.