Guardian 3: FERC plans the environmental assessment for March 5, 2027

Guardian Pipeline, LLC asked FERC for a certificate to build and run more natural gas pipeline in Illinois and Wisconsin. The docket is CP26-548-000. Guardian filed the application on July 1, 2026. FERC staff’s September 24, 2026 schedule, printed in the Federal Register on September 29, says an environmental assessment is planned for March 5, 2027. A final order is anticipated no later than June 17, 2027. If the schedule slips, the notice says FERC will say so.

The project is called Guardian 3. Staff’s notice says it would add about 536,903 dekatherms a day of long-term firm transportation. A dekatherm is a unit of gas energy, about one million British thermal units. The pipe itself is looping, which means a second pipe laid beside a pipe that is already there, not a brand-new path across a new state.

The notice lists the pieces. About 42.6 miles of 36-inch pipe, the Juliet Loop, in Kendall and DeKalb counties, Illinois. About 25.5 miles of 36-inch pipe, the Sycamore Loop, in DeKalb and McHenry counties, Illinois. Two new 11,110-horsepower compressors inside the existing Joliet Compressor Station in Will County, Illinois. Changes at the existing Sycamore compressor station in DeKalb County. A new 9,000-horsepower Eden compressor station in Dodge County, Wisconsin. A new Sheboygan meter and regulator station in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. This brief is filed on the Kendall County hub because the Juliet Loop is named there. The project is not only Kendall County.

The assessment will go out for a 30-day comment period. Other federal agencies that have to approve a piece of the project have a decision deadline of June 3, 2027, counted as 90 days after the assessment, unless another law sets a different clock. Cooperating agencies named in the notice are the Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District; EPA Region 5; and the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Illinois.

Comments already in the file, the notice says, are about noise, farm drainage, pipeline safety, and whether landowners were told. Eight comments supported the project. One protest raised legal, environmental, farm, water, and operating issues. Those comments are supposed to be answered in the assessment. Support comments are not a certificate. A certificate is the later order that says the pipeline may be built.

To watch the docket, FERC’s free eSubscription service is described at https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-online/overview. In eLibrary, search docket CP26-548, without the last three digits, the notice says. Help with the library is (866) 208-3676, TTY (202) 502-8659, or FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov. Help making a filing is the Office of Public Participation, (202) 502-6595 or OPP@ferc.gov.