I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4381 
To require certain holders of a certificate of public convenience and necessity 
issued under the Natural Gas Act to suspend activities authorized by 
the certificate until violations relating to air quality are remediated, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 13, 2017 
Mr. LYNCH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To require certain holders of a certificate of public conven-
ience and necessity issued under the Natural Gas Act 
to suspend activities authorized by the certificate until 
violations relating to air quality are remediated, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Natural Gas Pipeline 
Public Health Protection Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. SUSPENSION OF CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVEN-
IENCE AND NECESSITY IN AREAS WITH PRE- 
EXISTING UNSAFE AIR POLLUTANT LEVELS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Where certified independent air 
quality testing demonstrates an existing violation of a na-
tional ambient air quality standard promulgated under 
section 109 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7409), or 
of a requirement relating to a hazardous air pollutant list-
ed under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 
7412), at a site (including any community surrounding 
such site) that is identified as the proposed location of 
a project for which a certificate of public convenience and 
necessity has been issued to a covered holder, until such 
time as the State environmental authority with jurisdic-
tion over the project site conducts certified independent 
air quality testing (or other air quality testing using meth-
ods that have been approved by the State environmental 
authority or the Environmental Protection Agency) and 
certifies to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
that any such violation has been remediated— 
(1) the covered holder shall suspend all activi-
ties authorized by the certificate of public conven-
ience and necessity of the covered holder; and 
(2) the Commission may not issue any new cer-
tificate of public convenience and necessity under 
section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717f) 
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to the covered holder with respect to the applicable 
project or project site (including any community sur-
rounding such site). 
(b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘covered 
holder’’ means a holder of a certificate of public conven-
ience and necessity, issued under section 7 of the Natural 
Gas Act, during the two-year period ending on the date 
of enactment of this Act, that has not commenced con-
struction of the project for which such certificate was 
issued by such date of enactment. 
Æ 
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