The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Jan. 24 abandoned a policy proposal on climate change that has sat in draft form for nearly three years.

FERC is an independent government agency within the Department of Energy that regulates the transmission of natural gas, oil, and electricity across state lines. It also regulates the construction of natural gas export facilities.

On Feb. 18, 2022, FERC issued an “interim policy statement” explaining how it would factor a natural gas project’s influence on climate change into its review of that project. The policy never took effect, with FERC in March 2022 declaring it a “draft policy statement” and saying it would not apply it to any decisions until it was finalized.

In FERC’s Jan. 24 order, FERC commissioners officially closed the matter and wrote that climate change is “better considered on a case-by-case basis.”