Dive Brief:

• Federal regulators have chosen to move the date of a public meeting to avoid a large protest which had been planned to call attention to gas infrastructure projects supporting hydraulic fracturing.
• FERC issued a statement saying it moved the meeting date to "better ensure the safety of its staff and the public," SNL Energy reported.
• A group called Beyond Extreme Energy has been ramping up protests at FERC headquarters and hopes to bring 500 or more to the commission's next open meeting. They say they will still picket the FERC meeting, despite the date change.

Dive Insight:

FERC has adjusted the date of its open meeting this month, moving it up a week at the recommendation of the Federal Protective Service in response to large numbers of protestors who had planned to attend.

Beyond Extreme Energy (BEE), which describes itself as a "growing coalition of communities and individuals on the front lines" of the fight against climate change, had planned to bring 500 or more protestors to the commission's next meeting, and said it still expects solid turnout despite the change.

According to the BEE website, the group organized the protest to "demand FERC fulfill its mission to make decisions based on what is best for the nation as a whole, not just what suits the fossil fuel industry." 

"If they thought that was going to somehow prevent us, they were very wrong about that," Ted Glick, a protest organizer and national campaign coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, told SNL Energy.

While the commission said it made the decision to ensure safety, the protestors' website notes: "Our actions at FERC are strictly nonviolent, but there could be some risk of arrest depending upon how you choose to participate. Full legal briefings will be provided as part of extensive nonviolent direct action training. Note, however, that it is not necessary for you to risk arrest to contribute meaningfully to the week of actions."

SNL points out that the commission has been cracking down on protestors, some of whom have been increasingly disruptive at FERC's meetings. Some protestors have been escorted or removed from the commission's meeting room as protests have grown larger and more frequent.