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.

Throughout public input periods before and after releases of draft and final, GTN Xpress EISs, FERC has received comments from concerned residents in Warm Springs and Bend, Oregon, Liberty Lake, Washington, and many other locations, highlighting TC Energy’s refusal to address public safety risks, health impacts, and environmental justice [4-6].  Drawn from information found through Fractracker Alliance and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), WIRT’s August 2022 action alert and comments to FERC describe two GTN pipeline leaks in north Idaho and one in eastern Washington during the last dozen years [7, 8].  And that’s just GTN leaks known from reports.  How much more gas has TC Energy/GTN released without public knowledge, unlike viscous tar sands pipeline ruptures?  Additionally, Pipeline Safety Trust commented in March 2023, “…as the Commission knows, higher pressure systems leak more gas, and incidents on higher pressure lines release more methane into the environment, given the greater amount of methane in a higher pressure pipeline, all else being equal, and have a larger ‘blast zone’ in the case of explosion” [9].  TC Energy downplays these risks that are particularly pronounced during the Northwest fire season, as its application and ensuing filings pursue a FERC certificate of public convenience and necessity.  FERC has not yet fully accounted for the fire and safety hazards identified by Pipeline Safety Trust and continues to ignore community member concerns.

GTN Xpress’ climate impacts only exacerbate these threats: The expansion would add more than 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, harming public health and accelerating climate change in and beyond communities along the pipeline route.  The project is inconsistent with Washington and Oregon laws that require decreasing climate emissions respectively by 95 and 80 percent by 2050.  GTN Xpress would instead raise Northwest emissions, making these targets even more difficult to reach.  Through multiple collaborative motions, Washington, Oregon, and California state attorneys generals and the Stop GTN Xpress coalition have called on FERC to reject this fossil fuels expansion and honor its commitments to uphold robust environmental justice and greenhouse gas emission standards.  Besides denying this TC Energy proposal altogether, FERC should alternatively refrain from issuing a decision on GTN Xpress until agencies can investigate and release information to the public about the root causes and full ramifications of the TC Energy pipeline fire in Shenandoah County.  Minimally, FERC should remove the GTN Xpress proposal from its July 27, 2023, meeting agenda and avoid egregiously rushing to approve it, while smoke erupted from the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline has barely cleared.

TWO URGENT ACTIONS: CONTACT FERC!

With FERC poised to issue a decision on TC Energy’s GTN Xpress this Thursday, July 27, Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), and Stop GTN Xpress organizations urge you to act immediately to ask FERC to deny the project and remove its consideration from this month’s agenda.  On Wednesday and Thursday, July 26 and 27, we encourage you to participate in effective actions directed at FERC in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.  Northwest coalition activists will gather near the FERC office at 1201 Northeast Lloyd Boulevard, Suite 750, in Portland during Wednesday afternoon, July 26, starting at 2 pm Pacific time, to tell FERC “No GTN Xpress pipeline expansion!,” as depicted with an attached event flyer.  D.C. demonstrations on Thursday morning, July 27, may involve greeting and leafleting FERC staff and commissioners and wielding speeches and banners (like the Stop GTN Xpress banner in May) outside the FERC meeting that begins at 10 am Eastern time.  Leading up to this meeting, BXE and WIRT are alerting our contacts to call and email FERC commissioners, in a quick, collective blast of direct communications that reach them better than formal, dismissed comments.  Let’s pressure FERC to reject this dangerous and unnecessary natural gas line!

Please address your emergency requests to deny GTN Xpress (docket number CP22-2-000) and remove it from the July FERC agenda, to FERC commissioners Christie, Clements, Danly, and Phillips.  BXE is especially focusing demands on Democratic commissioner Alison Clements, who seems most amenable to standing against fossil fuels ventures, and on acting FERC chair Willie Phillips, who has shown that he is willing to return FERC to its role as a rubberstamp for industry.  To conduct this phone and email zap, see the BXE toolkit for talking point prompts and other detailed materials [10].  The Stop GTN Xpress network has also provided a basic, draft script:

My name is _______ .  I am calling to urge FERC to oppose the GTN Xpress project.  FERC is poised to make a decision on Thursday about GTN Xpress, a major fracked gas expansion through the Northwest.  On Tuesday, another TC Energy-owned pipeline ruptured and burned 80 miles from Washington D.C.  This latest incident demonstrates the terrible safety record of TC Energy, the applicant for GTN Xpress.  FERC continues to ignore the safety risks of this project that would increase threats of pipeline failures and wildfires among Northwest communities.  I urge FERC to deny GTN Xpress approval and remove it from this month’s agenda.  Thanks for this opportunity to comment.

Thank you for responding to and sharing this alert via email and social media, and for joining these upcoming events and pressuring FERC.  Please contact WIRT with your questions and for further issue information.  With deepest gratitude for all of you co-workers un-FERCing the world!

[1] Gas Pipeline Explodes Near Interstate in Rural Virginia; No Injuries Reported, July 25, 2023 Associated Press/U.S. News

[2] Fire Erupts after Explosion at TC Energy Pipeline in Virginia, July 25, 2023 Defence News

[3] The Keystone Pipeline Leaked in Kansas. What Makes this Spill So Bad?, December 17, 2022 National Public Radio

[4] Collected Comments to FERC Urging Denial of GTN Xpress, July 12, 2023 Columbia Riverkeeper

[5] Riccardo Waites on GTN Xpress, July 19, 2023 Riccardo Waites

[6] Farness Young Liberty Lake Comment to FERC, July 24, 2023 Janet Farness and Richard Young

[7] Stop North Idaho’s Keystone XL Pipeline!, August 18, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[8] WIRT Comments on GTN Xpress Draft EIS, August 23, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[9] Letter in Opposition to Gas Transmission Northwest LLC’s Proposed GTN Xpress Project (Docket No. CP22-2-000), March 29, 2023 Pipeline Safety Trust

[10] Stop GTN Xpress Toolkit for July 27 FERC Meeting, July 25, 2023 Beyond Extreme Energy