On October 19, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress expansion of an unsafe, potentially explosive, six-decade-plus, methane (“natural” gas) pipeline across Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to California [1-7].  The Calgary, Alberta-based, Canadian owner of the rejected Keystone XL and rupture-prone Keystone tar sands pipelines in the Great Plains and the fiery Columbia Gas Transmission line in the northeast U.S., TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) proposes to increase the pump pressures of three compressor stations in Athol, Idaho, Starbuck, Washington, and Kent, Oregon, and push an additional 150 million cubic feet per day of unneeded, fracked gas volumes through the almost 1,400-mile-long GTN line from Eastport, Idaho, to Malin, Oregon, suspiciously the origin point of the defeated Pacific Connector gas pipeline to the also vanquished Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal planned for Coos Bay, Oregon [8, 9].

The bi-directional Williams Northwest gas line would carry over half (79 million cubic feet per day) of GTN Xpress methane from the GTN-Northwest juncture near the Columbia River at Stanfield, Oregon, to the Boise metropolitan area and southern Idaho.  Cascade Natural Gas based in Kennewick, Washington, and Intermountain Gas headquartered in Boise signed precedent agreements for their utility companies to receive and distribute GTN Xpress gas.  Not coincidentally, Intermountain has concurrently applied to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission for customer rate increases, contested by the city of Boise and Idaho Conservation League, likely to pass the costs of excess GTN methane on to Idaho consumers.

After rubber stamping 423 of 425 pipeline applications as standard practice during the last two decades, FERC published a 79-page order issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity for GTN Xpress, including statements from commissioners Clements and Danly both partially concurring and dissenting with the decision [10, 11].  This outcome ignored Northwest concerns about the lack of gas demand and the climate, health, and safety impacts of the expansion (addressed in an upcoming action alert), neglected proper tribal consultation, despite extensive comments to FERC from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and dismissed unprecedented community, tribal, and state and federal government resistance to this scheme clearly driven by industry profits from increasingly stranded fossil fuels assets.

Columbia Riverkeeper and Rogue Climate, accepted intervenors in this quasi-judicial, FERC case deliberating whether GTN Xpress methane is both necessary and in the public interest, will challenge this reckless decision, by petitioning FERC before November 22, to withdraw its GTN Xpress order and/or hold a formal rehearing.  Through their first of several filings, since the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for GTN Xpress in summer 2022, all three West Coast attorneys general requested belated intervenor status after the February 2022 deadline.  The Stop GTN Xpress coalition is encouraging the states of Washington, Oregon, and California, who urged FERC to reject this project, to also ask FERC for a rehearing.  As the Northwest continues to hold FERC, TC Energy, and GTN accountable for exacerbated climate change and environmental injustices, FERC can grant, deny, or ignore these petitions within 30 days of their filing, and compressor station upgrades and construction could begin in January 2024.

Besides thousands of Northwest citizens and a broad coalition of dozens of regional and nationwide, indigenous, environmental, health, and faith advocacy groups, numerous elected officials have voiced objections to GTN Xpress, including U.S. senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington, and Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla of California, U.S. Congressional members Earl Blumenauer and Andrea Salinas of Oregon, Washington governor Jay Inslee, Oregon governor Tina Kotek, attorneys general Rob Bonta of California, Bob Ferguson of Washington, and Ellen Rosenblum of Oregon, and four Oregon and Washington state representatives.

Inland Northwest GTN Xpress Weeks of Actions Continue reading →

Along with Inland Northwest GTN Xpress Weeks of Actions in Athol, Boise, Moscow, and Sandpoint, Idaho, and Kennewick and Spokane, Washington, on October 28 to November 10, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and allies encourage you to attend this GTN Xpress pipeline corridor community safety vigil on Sunday evening, November 5 [1, 2].

Forwarded message:

Dear colleagues and friends,

You are invited to a vigil to respond to the recent, disappointing news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has green-lighted the GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion project.  Here are the details, and attached is a flyer, which you are welcome to pass along to those who would be interested.

Vigil for Community Safety Against Approved Pipeline Expansion of Gas Transmission Northwest Xpress

Sunday, November 5, 2023, 4:30-5:30 pm*

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 East 24th Avenue, Spokane

*Please note that this will be an outdoor event on the day when clocks change from daylight savings to standard time.  For more information, please see our website, the Seattle Times, and Columbia Riverkeeper [3-5].

The vigil is co-sponsored by these organizations: Continue reading →

WHAT THE FERC?!

On Thursday, July 20, a Northwest coalition of groups working to stop the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress pipeline expansion learned that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) listed GTN Xpress on its certificate agenda for its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 27.  In an apparent, massive, rubberstamp attempt to rush approvals before FERC’s August non-meeting break, the federal agency will likely permit a slew of fossil fuels projects including the GTN Xpress application of TC Energy, owner of the rupturing Keystone and rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipelines.  Along with thousands of Northwest citizens and dozens of organizations, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and West Coast governors, state attorneys general and legislators, and U.S. senators have opposed and organized against GTN Xpress for almost two years.

GTN Xpress is essentially a fossil fuels invasion of southern Idaho, thankfully challenged by neighboring states and Sandpoint and Spokane fossil fuels sacrifice zones that would receive only 13 percent or none of additional GTN gas.  More than half of the 150 million cubic feet per day of extra, unnecessary, fracked gas that TC Energy plans to push with three upgraded compressors through the 60-year-plus GTN pipeline would threaten the health and safety of north Idaho and eastern Washington pipeline corridor residents, for delivery to southern Idaho.  GTN and Intermountain Gas of Boise, who requested gas customer price hikes last winter, intend to essentially take over and reverse westward Williams Northwest pipeline flows, to bolster their profits at the 30-year expense of utility ratepayers increasingly favoring alternative energy.

WIRT is exploring the GTN Xpress record for information about probably missing Williams agreements and to produce second WIRT comments before July 27, welcoming other, also issue-underrepresented, Idaho and inland Northwest groups and residents to send your remarks to FERC.  Despite postponed railroad double-track construction impeding public transportation and requiring citizen monitoring at the Sandpoint Amtrak station, we will next coordinate regional protests in Athol (site of one of three compressor expansions), Sandpoint, Spokane, Moscow, and Boise, denouncing GTN’s proposal and FERC’s predictable decision, while supporting FERC re-hearing petitions filed by coalition partners and hopefully Northwest states, before the August 26 challenge deadline.  We appreciate your interest in GTN Xpress resistance and your input toward comments and demonstrations that demand FERC justice from the ongoing dangers and compounded risks of GTN Xpress expansion, leaks, and resulting climate disasters.

ANOTHER TC ENERGY PIPELINE RUPTURE

On July 25, the TC Energy-owned Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline catastrophically failed, causing a large explosion and fire and temporarily closing Interstate 81 in rural Shenandoah County, Virginia, approximately 80 miles west of Washington, D.C. [1, 2].  Thankfully, the incident neither injured nor killed anyone, and its causes and impacts remain unknown.  But like the December 2022 rupture and 600,000-gallon spill from TC Energy’s Keystone tar sands pipeline into a Kansas stream only weeks after FERC release of the GTN Xpress final environmental impact statement (EIS), the Virginia disaster demonstrates the terrible safety record of TC Energy and timely illustrates the major risks posed by TC Energy’s GTN Xpress, less than 48 hours before FERC could approve this expansion scheme [3].  The proposal would increase flammable, climate-wrecking, methane gas flows through a six-decade-old pipeline among fire-prone rural lands and urban residential areas in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  As multiple wildfires burn and blanket the Northwest with smoke, a pipeline accident like the one that just occurred in Shenandoah County could devastate nearby communities. Continue reading →

On Wednesday evening, April 12, in Spokane, Washington, faith, spiritual, health, and environmental advocates will lead a community gathering, teach-in, and procession in opposition to the proposed Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion [1].  The 62-year-old GTN pipeline runs under the Spokane River and through Liberty Lake, Spokane Valley, and other parts of Spokane County [2, 3].  Canadian company TC Energy, owner of the leaking Keystone and rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipelines, and its subsidiary GTN threaten to pump up to 150 million cubic feet of additional methane gas per day through the GTN pipeline that crosses north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon.

While communities throughout the Northwest shift away from coal, oil, and “natural” gas, fossil fuel companies like TC Energy have adopted a new tactic: bolstering the capacity of aging pipelines.  A broad, regional, Stop GTN Xpress coalition, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, three West Coast state attorneys general, and other concerned Northwesterners are resisting this gas pipeline and compressor station expansion.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) could vote for or against granting project approval as early as April 20.  The GTN Xpress pipeline expansion further risks exposing local, Spokane area, and north Idaho communities to both the dangers and damages of ruptured pipeline explosions, fires, and pollution and the increased carbon and greenhouse gas emissions that are causing more severe storms, droughts, wildfires, and floods [4-6].

The gathering and teach-in at 6:30 pm Pacific time on April 12, at Salem Lutheran Church, 1428 West Broadway Avenue in Spokane, will feature comments from members of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light (WAIPL), Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR), and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), among other organizations [7-9].  They will offer opportunities to learn about GTN Xpress and its potential impacts on public and environmental health and safety.  After an interactive presentation with speakers, event organizers invite participants to join a procession with signs and banners, walking together several blocks to the banks of the Spokane River, where faith leaders will share a brief group prayer and photograph the demonstration.

To access further information and attend, please contact coordinating groups and visit their websites and RSVP through the event description link [10]. Continue reading →

Starting at 5 pm Pacific time and 6 pm Mountain time on Monday evening, February 13, a Northwest coalition of nonprofit organizations, including 350 Deschutes, 350 PDX, Columbia Riverkeeper, Rogue Climate, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), will host a People’s Hearing on Canadian company TC Energy’s proposal to expand fracked “natural” gas exported through the aging Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline and compressor stations that span north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon.  This hybrid town hall, convened online and in-person at the Gardenia Center (400 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho) and at the Rogue Climate office (205 North Phoenix Road, Suite G, Phoenix, Oregon), offers participants opportunities to learn about the potential impacts of the GTN Xpress expansion project and to provide testimony recorded and sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the project docket.

Among concerned, regional community members and environmental and climate advocates sharing their insights and stories, the People’s Hearing on GTN Xpress will feature these key speakers:

* U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon

* Audrey Leonard, staff attorney of Columbia Riverkeeper

* Peter McCartney, climate campaigner of Wilderness Committee

* Dr. Annemarie Dooley, physician and board member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

* Naghmana Sherazi, activist and board member of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light

Please RSVP and register to join this virtual conference at bit.ly/peopleshearing_gtn and/or gather at the Gardenia Center or Rogue Climate office and contact WIRT for further information [1].  Timely input from citizens and local elected officials to FERC before its possible decision on this project on Thursday, March 16, is crucial to halting the GTN Xpress fossil fuels onslaught [2].  Along with commenting and/or testifying to FERC, help support this resistance by amplifying a new video recently launched by the grassroots coalition, through social media posts email messages, and other methods [3].  Also reach out to any of the partner groups, if your organization is interested in joining the fight to #StopGTNXpress.  Within the next few days, WIRT will add to this post and send further descriptions of pipeline expansion impacts and issue updates, to assist involvement in this campaign. Continue reading →

GTN Xpress & Idaho & Northwest Stakeholders

Canadian energy company TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), owner of the notorious Keystone and Keystone XL tar sands pipelines and the Coastal GasLink line under contested construction through unceded, indigenous, Wet’suwet’en territories in British Columbia (B.C.), has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to increase the “natural” gas pipeline volumes and pressures of three compressor stations along its Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline, with the GTN Xpress expansion project from B.C. through north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon.  The 61-year-old, potentially explosive GTN pipeline passes under Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s (WIRT) fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails frontline community and waters around Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho, through several rural sacrifice zones, and below the Spokane, Washington, metropolitan area.  One of the GTN compressor stations planned for upgrades stands near dozens of unaware residences and a popular amusement park full of hundreds of visitors in Athol, Idaho [1].

TC Energy and partner fossil fuel corporations propose to increase the capacity for dangerous methane gas in the existing, 1,354-mile GTN pipeline by 150 million cubic feet per day, pushing more gas into the Northwest and locking communities into expensive fossil fuel energy for decades.  If approved by FERC, the GTN Xpress expansion would cause continued fracking in tribal lands in Canada and threaten and harm the health and safety of rural, low-income communities living and working along the pipeline route.  Prone to accidents like leaks, fires, and explosions, the aging infrastructure of pipelines and compressor stations risks exposing nearby residents to cancer-causing pollutants.

Over the last few decades, Northwest citizens have defeated fossil fuels pipelines, processing plants, and export terminals, and organized to pass local and state climate laws, while experiencing record droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate change impacts.  But sneakier pipeline expansions require different government processes and regulations than new pipeline construction, even though GTN Xpress would exacerbate the greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the climate crisis contributing to these conditions.  Supplying enough gas to serve 1.2 million households each day, GTN Xpress would contradict Oregon and Washington state policy commitments to reduce climate pollution and end dependence on climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

During summer 2022, over 1,300 people petitioned FERC to deny TC Energy’s plans; Columbia River tribes voiced their resistance; a broad, emerging coalition of Northwest community groups commented against the project; and the attorneys general of California, Oregon, and Washington told FERC that they oppose GTN Xpress, because it clearly conflicts with state and federal climate goals.  With FERC expected to release the scheme’s final environmental impact statement (EIS) on November 18, 2022, and to issue an ultimate decision in February 2023, Northwesterners need to hold FERC accountable, ask that the agency address valid climate, public health, and environmental concerns raised across the region, and demand that FERC reject the GTN Xpress project.

Since April 2022, the WIRT climate activist collective has been informing, networking, and supporting impacted, indigenous, and grassroots groups and individuals and state, county, and city, elected and agency officials about GTN Xpress, along the north Idaho and eastern Washington GTN pipeline corridor and in southern Idaho, where Intermountain Gas customers would receive over half of the additional GTN Xpress methane gas from a Stanfield, Oregon, compressor station diversion.  We have provided extensive comments to FERC on behalf of WIRT’s 3,200-plus contacts, and communicated and urged opposition to the GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion via social media, email, website, and other online resources, and through WIRT’s weekly, eleven-years-broadcast, community radio program [2].  WIRT plans to continue to raise resistance to this Canadian stranded gas asset invasion of the Northwest, by encouraging citizen involvement in public processes and alternative methods of GTN Xpress rejection.

Stop GTN Xpress Week of Actions Report Continue reading →

Regional organizations and grassroots activists of 350 Spokane, Idaho Chapter Sierra Club, Palouse Extinction Rebellion, Rogue Climate, Veterans for Peace Spokane Chapter 35, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) request your participation and support of public protests of three corporations pushing the dangerous Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress pipeline expansion project.  We are collectively co-hosting these actions in solidarity with sovereign Wet’suwet’en land defenders and water protectors opposing Coastal GasLink pipeline construction through their unceded, indigenous territories in British Columbia, Canada.  Allied groups are planning peaceful, safe, and effective citizen pickets on nearby public walkways outside fossil fuel company offices during early November, to attract a broad range of involvement and responses from the public, issue coalition groups, and media.  Several partner organizations are graciously offering travel funds and providing Stop GTN Xpress/Coastal GasLink logo designs, T-shirts, signs, banners, and other equipment.  Volunteer activists are eager to engage you in resistance to both Northwest gas pipelines owned by TC Energy, notorious for its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.  Please share this event announcement and flyer and other campaign outreach materials via text, social media, email, and website, invite and bring your friends, family, and protest signs, create props and coordinate carpools and various logistics, and join us at one or all of these lively demonstrations!

Tuesday, November 1, 4 pm PDT at TC Energy, 201 West North River Drive, Suite 505, Spokane, Washington: Meet on the north path along the Spokane River, across from Riverfront Park and between Washington and Division streets

Wednesday, November 2, 4 pm PDT at Cascade Natural Gas, 8113 West Grandridge Boulevard, Kennewick, Washington: Gather on the south sidewalk along Grandridge Boulevard

Friday, November 4, 4 pm MDT at Intermountain Gas, 555 South Cole Road, Boise, Idaho: Converge on the west Cole Road walkway near the Farmers Lateral Canal

Resist plans by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) and regional “natural” gas utilities to increase methane gas volumes by 150 million (and eventually, incrementally 250 million) cubic feet per day and upgrade the capacity of three compressor stations of the 1,354-mile GTN pipeline that crosses from British Columbia, through north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon, to California [1, 2].  The 61-year-old, potentially explosive, climate-wrecking gas pipeline is dangerously located under the Spokane, Washington, metropolitan area and below the Schweitzer ski resort parking lot and city of Sandpoint, Idaho.  The Athol, Idaho, pump station proposed for expansion stands only two miles from the popular Silverwood Theme Park, full of hundreds of visitors on precarious rides during spring, summer, and fall days.

GTN has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to permit the GTN Xpress expansion project.  But controversy has continued to grow during and since the too-brief comment period on FERC’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that closed on August 22, despite a timely letter from twenty mostly Oregon groups and Wild Idaho Rising Tide, requesting that FERC provide an additional 30 days for the public to review and evaluate the document [3].  As thousands of people across the Northwest rise to oppose GTN Xpress, FERC has received over 1,300 oppositional petition signatures and extensive, informative remarks from concerned citizens, environmental and climate groups, and tribal, state, and federal government officials, denouncing draft EIS deficiencies and the fracked gas pipeline expansion’s significant contributions to worsening climate change, while the Northwest transitions off fossil fuels toward more sustainable, renewable energy sources [2, 4, 5].

Attempting to foist stranded Canadian gas assets on the Northwest, likely aware of its gradually failing product prospects, TC Energy expects to quickly, stealthily secure GTN Xpress approval by FERC and other government regulatory agencies.  It has strategically enlisted contracted, third-party, environmental reviewers with undisclosed conflicts of interests as consulting firms simultaneously working with TC Energy, and has expanded its other pipeline volumes, instead of building new infrastructure that attracts justified direct actions from frontline fossil fuels fighters [6, 7].  With anticipated release of a final EIS on November 18, postponed from October 14, and a pending conclusive FERC decision on GTN Xpress in February 2023, impacted residents and concerned communities must act swiftly to protect the inland Northwest from this proposal [8]. Continue reading →

GTN Xpress Gas Pipeline Expansion

Residents of the Northwest and Turtle Island continent continue to experience the extreme, worsening heat, droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods caused by fossil-fueled climate change.  But Canadian energy company TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), owner of the notoriously leaky Keystone tar sands pipeline, partially completed but unpermitted Keystone XL pipeline, and new Coastal GasLink line invading unceded indigenous lands in British Columbia (B.C.), expects the public not to notice its plans to stealthily expand its 1,353-mile-long Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline across north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon [1-5].

The GTN Xpress project would dangerously increase “natural” gas volumes by 150 million to 250 million cubic feet per day, in its 61-year-old pipeline system.  GTN transports gas extracted via hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” from the prolific West Canadian Sedimentary Basin and Rocky Mountain fields of northeast British Columbia and Alberta.  It connects with the Foothills and Nova Gas Transmission pipelines in Canada near Kingsgate, B.C., crosses the U.S. border at Eastport, Idaho, and terminates in Malin, Oregon, where it flows into the Tuscarora pipeline in northern California.  In north Idaho, the climate-wrecking, potentially explosive GTN pipeline traverses the Moyie Valley, Bonners Ferry, and the Highway 95 corridor, close and parallel to railroad lines.  GTN passes under a Schweitzer Mountain ski resort parking lot and West Pine Street in Sandpoint, and below the Pend Oreille River near Dover, downstream from Idaho’s largest, deepest lake.  From Malin in southern Oregon, the controversial Pacific Connector pipeline would have carried feedstock gas out to the coastal Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Coos Bay.  But a decade-plus of broad public opposition and regulatory hurdles overcame both boondoggles.

Through a compression-only expansion of the GTN system, GTN Xpress would software-upgrade the capacity and pressure of the gas-fired turbine compressor at the Athol, Idaho, pump station 5, from 14,300 to 23,470 horsepower.  Although the Athol station is located at 2244 East Seasons Road in Kootenai County, a dispatch center in Portland, Oregon, remotely controls it and 11 other compressor stations, numbered 3 through 14, which move gas along the U.S. part of the pipeline.  The facility stands just two miles west-northwest of the popular Silverwood Theme Park, full of hundreds of visitors on precarious rides during spring, summer, and fall days.  Installing new equipment and improving an access road at two Washington and Oregon compressor stations and along the pipeline, the GTN Xpress project would push an additional 250,000 dekatherms of gas per day out to smaller, linked pipelines and markets in Washington, Oregon, and California.  As one dekatherm provides enough gas for five average-sized (over-large) homes, new GTN Xpress infrastructure and gas volumes would force 1.2 million households to use fossil fuels for at least another 30 years.

Excess Gas & Northwest Energy Transitions

In its October 2021 application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), seeking a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the GTN Xpress project, TC Energy claims that “increased market demand driven by residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the Pacific Northwest” justifies aged GTN pipeline expansion, and that “the benefits of GTN’s proposed project far outweigh its potential adverse impacts” [6].  These plans prompted FERC to prepare a draft, federal, environmental impact statement (EIS) currently undergoing public scrutiny and input [7-9].  Although TC Energy has urged FERC to approve the project with a final EIS by October 14, 2022, and to authorize it by the 90-day federal deadline of January 12, 2023, company and agency staff must first prove to the commission that Americans, not just Idahoans and Northwesterners, need this pipeline expansion, and that GTN Xpress would benefit public interests.  As FERC called for draft EIS scoping comments on the project in February 2022, it also updated its policies guiding decisions on natural gas projects, allowing the agency to more thoroughly consider a proposal’s contributions to climate change and potential impacts on landowners and environmental justice [10]. Continue reading →