El Paso Natural Gas Company, L.L.C. is asking federal regulators to approve a $20.3 million pipeline built for one purpose: feeding a single new power plant in El Paso County, Texas. The company, which filed as EPNG, submitted the request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 30, 2026, and is calling the project the McCloud Lateral Project.
A short line built for one customer
The proposed line runs 5.8 miles and measures 16 inches in diameter. It would connect EPNG's existing parallel Line Nos. 1100 and 1103 to a new McCloud Meter Station at the line's far end. That connection would give EPNG up to 167,000 dekatherms a day of new firm transportation capacity on its South Mainline System, all directed to one new delivery point. The filing says that delivery point will eventually serve a planned new power generation facility.
A pipeline lateral is a short branch line that taps into a larger, existing pipeline to reach one customer or delivery point, rather than a new long-distance route of its own. At under six miles, the McCloud line fits that description: it moves gas the last stretch to a specific meter station rather than opening new territory. That makes this a supply commitment tied to one facility, not evidence of broader gas demand across Texas.
How the approval works
EPNG filed the request under its blanket certificate in Docket No. CP82-435-000, the standing FERC authorization that lets a pipeline company build routine projects through a streamlined prior notice process instead of arguing a full certificate case from the start. Under that process, the McCloud project becomes authorized automatically the day after the protest period closes, as long as no protest is filed, or any protest that is filed gets withdrawn within 30 days of the deadline. If a protest is filed and not withdrawn within that window, the Commission takes up the request directly instead.
FERC set the deadline for protests, motions to intervene, and comments at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 5, 2026. None of the three carries a filing fee:
- Filing a protest to the project
- Filing a motion to intervene in the proceeding
- Filing comments on the project
Only parties that intervene can later seek rehearing of a Commission order in the case, or challenge that order in the federal circuit courts of appeal. The notice was published as FR Doc. 2026-16237 (91 FR 51487).
