Environmental Advocacy Groups Call on FERC to Deny a Permit for a Fracked Gas Pipeline Expansion Requested by TC Energy, the Company Responsible for the Keystone Pipeline Disaster
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2023
In advance of FERC’s meeting on Thursday, July 27…
Environmental Advocacy Groups Call on FERC to Deny a Permit for a Fracked Gas Pipeline Expansion Requested by TC Energy, the Company Responsible for the Keystone Pipeline Disaster
Cite Company’s Dangerously Failed Safety Record, Aging & Leaky Pipeline, Diminishing Need for Gas, Burden on Ratepayers, and Climate Pollution
Interviews available in advance or on July 27th
A coalition of environmental advocacy groups (see list below) in Oregon, Washington, California and Idaho, echoing the demands of governors, attorneys general, and U.S. Senators from those states (see links to statements below), call on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to deny a permit for a pipeline expansion project proposed by TC Energy, the company responsible for a recent gas pipeline explosion in Virginia today, and the disastrous Keystone pipeline spill in Kansas.
FERC will hold a meeting at 10am EST on Thursday, July 27, 2023 to vote on the project.
GTN XPress is a proposal from TC Energy to increase the volume of fracked gas by 150 million cubic feet per day through the existing GTN pipeline. GTN is a 1,354-mile pipeline that cuts through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The pipeline is decades old, and it has been plagued by leaks in the past 11 years. TC Energy demonstrates a poor safety record, having caused a 588,000-gallon spill from its Keystone pipeline in December 2022. Given the age and previous leaks in the GTN pipeline, the proposed expansion would endanger the health and safety of nearby communities.
GTN Xpress would also push fracked gas into states that are actively working to reduce reliance on fracked gas. TC Energy seeks to prolong and expand fracked gas use in the midst of the climate crisis despite local and state rules that require reductions in pollution from fracked gas. Community organizations in the Northwest have defeated pipeline proposals before and want investment in renewable energy rather than increased dependence on polluting and climate-changing fossil fuels.
“FERC would be making an outrageous mistake by approving the GTN Xpress proposal despite the objections of elected leaders in Washington, Oregon, and California, Tribes, and thousands of people in communities across the Northwest,” said Dan Serres, Conservation Director of Columbia Riverkeeper. “The Biden Administration and FERC would be ignoring the public safety, health, environmental justice, and climate-changing pollution harms of TC Energy’s risky plan by forcing fracked gas into states that oppose this project. FERC should deny GTN Xpress.”
"FERC and the Biden Administration cannot in good conscience approve this pipeline when it puts so many communities at risk with increased fracked gas shipments through neighborhoods and fire-prone landscapes. Wildfire smoke and extreme temperatures across our region hammer home the impacts of climate change, year after year," said Alessandra de la Torre of Rogue Climate. "On Thursday, if FERC moves to approve this project, it will be a slap in the face to thousands of people standing up for their communities. FERC should deny this project, and we have given FERC every reason they need to do so."
Opposition to the pipeline expansion proposal includes the following concerns:
- PUBLIC SAFETY: Pipeline facilities and fracked gas pipelines are highly flammable.
- TC Energy has a bad track record regarding pipeline safety.
In December 2022, TC Energy’s Keystone oil pipeline ruptured and spilled, leading to the largest oil spill in nearly a decade, 588,000 gallons. The spill was worsened by TC Energy getting federal permission to run the Keystone pipeline at a higher throughput - a troubling parallel with GTN Xpress. - According to the Pipeline Safety Trust, TC Energy’s track record shows it cannot be trusted to construct or operate pipelines safely. “Keystone has had dozens of releases amounting to hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil being released into streams, wildlife habitat and even farms. Pipeline Safety Trust is aware Keystone is a different kind of pipeline system than GTN — but it certainly calls into question TC Energy’s safety culture.“
- PUBLIC HEALTH: Communities near pipeline routes and compressor stations experience increased health risks including exposure to cancer-causing pollutants. A study from Indiana University found that proximity to higher amounts of volatile emissions from compressor stations were linked with higher death rates.
- Physicians for Social Responsibility has a compendium of resources on the harms of fracking here, and over 500 physicians and other health professionals urged FERC to deny GTN Xpress, stating “...compressor stations emit significant amounts of air pollution, both from the operation of the engine which powers the pump as well as from venting. Compressor stations and meter stations vent methane, volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. All of these air pollutants have serious health impacts, including increased risks of stroke, cancer, asthma and low birth weight and premature babies.”
- The States of Washington, Oregon and California wrote, “Doubling the capacity of the compressor stations will increase noxious pollutants like ozone and PM 2.5 in nearby communities, some of which are already overburdened by pollution.”
- CLIMATE POLLUTION: GTN XPress would result in more than 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. This is the equivalent pollution of adding 754,000 passenger vehicles a year on the road each year until 2052. Fossil fuels accelerate the impacts of climate change and are responsible for the majority of the world’s climate pollution. As climate events like extreme wildfires, droughts, and flooding plague the Northwest, our communities must transition off fossil fuels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
- According to the States of Oregon, Washington, and California, “The Project conflicts with state laws to reduce emissions and transition to renewable energy, and it will worsen environmental harms from climate change by locking in over 3.47 million metric tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions per year for at least the next thirty years.”
- UNDERMINES STATE CLIMATE GOAL COMMITMENTS: This project is inconsistent with state laws created to take action on climate– Washington and Oregon have committed to decreasing climate emissions by 95% and 80% by 2050. GTN XPress would raise state emissions making these targets even harder to reach.
- The States of Washington, Oregon, and California wrote, “if GTN continues business as usual with its pipeline in 2050, that would represent 48 percent of the region’s target GHG emissions from all sources.”
- CONFLICTS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY: Low-income, rural and Indigenous communities living along the pipeline route are disproportionately impacted by GTN pollution.
- This year, Chairman Phillips of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stated, “It is important that we consider the voices of historically disadvantaged communities in our decisions.” Yet, FERC has failed to address objections raised by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
- FERC’s analysis even admits that the project will disproportionately impact environmental justice communities, but FERC’s recent decisions have done little to address environmental justice concerns, according to comments filed by Earthjustice and reflect “a disturbing lack of commitment to making true and meaningful changes to FERC’s handling of environmental justice concerns that would result in genuine benefits to frontline and fenceline communities.”
- Oregon’s U.S. Senators Merkley and Wyden condemned the project for “risk[ing] the safety of frontline communities and the planet” in December 2022.
- RATEPAYER BURDEN: The GTN XPress benefits fossil fuel corporations while burdening utility ratepayers. Continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructure is expensive and at odds with the declining costs of renewable energy.
- The States of Washington, Oregon and California wrote, “The project also threatens consumer interests, since increasing methane gas infrastructure during this transition will result in costly stranded assets for ratepayers.”
- According to the Oregon Citizens Utility Board, the expansion “would be bad for Oregon and risky for customers.”
List of organizations in the coalition opposing GTN Xpress:
Rogue Climate, Columbia Riverkeeper, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), 350PDX, 350 Deschutes, 350 Eugene, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Breach Collective, Extinction Rebellion, Sierra Club, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Oregon Interfaith Power and Light (OIPL), California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL), 350 Corvallis, 350 Salem, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon Earth Ministry/Washington, Interfaith Power and Light (WAIPL), 350 Seattle, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network (COIN).
Links to statements by AGs, US Senators, Governors:
Fracked gas to feed proposed methanol refineries, power plants, and petrochemical facilities would come into the Pacific Northwest in massive pipelines.
