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

In response to this FERC decision, the grassroots, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), Extinction Rebellion Palouse, and Veterans for Peace Spokane Chapter 35 are co-hosting protests of GTN Xpress and its FERC rubber stamp in Athol, Boise, Moscow, and Sandpoint, Idaho, and Kennewick and Spokane, Washington, on Saturday, October 28, through Friday, November 10.  These Inland Northwest GTN Xpress Weeks of Actions denounce the flawed, October 19, federal agency approval of plans by TC Energy and regional utilities to expand the compressor stations and unneeded methane  of the aging, unsafe GTN pipeline in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  Six demonstrations also uphold ongoing resistance to Northwest invasions by new or expanded fossil fuels projects.  WIRT and allied organizers invite the participation of Idaho and eastern Washington pipeline corridor residents threatened by toxic, dangerous, oil and gas infrastructure.  We will offer information about GTN Xpress and its opposition at these actions, and ask that everyone attending bring or help hold banners and signs.  For further event announcements and descriptions to share, please see (and print and post!) the attached, color flyer and linked, WIRT website and facebook pages [12].

* Saturday, October 28, 7 pm PDT: Silverwood Theme Park, Athol, Idaho

Meet outside the gates of Scarywood Haunted Nights, near the Silverwood Theme Park parking lot, northeast of the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and East Bunco Road.

* Sunday, October 29, 2 pm PDT: GTN Sandpoint Pump Station, Sandpoint, Idaho

Gather across the road from the Pine Street Woods trail head parking lot, on the northeast corner of West Pine Street and Daybreak Drive.

* Friday, November 3, 4 pm PDT: TC Energy, Spokane, Washington

Converge on the sidewalk north of the office building at 201 West North River Drive (Suite 505), west of Oxford Suites, and/or on the nearby path along the Spokane River, across from Riverfront Park and between Washington and Division streets.

* Monday, November 6, 4 pm PST: Cascade Natural Gas, Kennewick, Washington

Join fellow protesters on the south sidewalk outside 8113 West Grandridge Boulevard.

* Wednesday, November 8, 3 pm MST: Intermountain Gas, Boise, Idaho

Assemble near 555 South Cole Road, on the west Cole Road walkway between West McMullen Street and the Farmers Lateral Canal.

* Friday, November 10, 12 pm PST: University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho

Rally outside the university library, east of Rayburn Street, between Idaho and University avenues on the U of I campus.

Please show and support strong resistance to this Northwest methane pipeline expansion!

[1] Summaries: October 2023 Commission Meeting, October 19, 2023 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[2] FERC Approves GTN Xpress Despite Opposition from Communities, Tribes, U.S. Senators, West Coast Governors, October 19, 2023 Rogue Climate

[3] FERC Approves GTN Xpress: Legal Challenges to Come, October 19, 2023 Columbia Riverkeeper

[4] GTN Xpress Approved and Soon Challenged!, October 19, 2023 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[5] Thanks to KREM reporter Shannon Moudy for contacting WIRT…, October 20, 2023 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[6] Feds Give Green Light to Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion in the Pacific Northwest, October 19, 2023 KREM

[7] Federal Regulators Approve Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion through Oregon, Washington, and North Idaho, October 20, 2023 Idaho Capital Sun

[8] Stop GTN Xpress (video), January 31, 2023 Rogue Climate

[9] People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress – 2/14/23 (video), February 14, 2023 Rogue Climate

[10] Pipelines and Politics, Alison Gocke in Harvard Environmental Law Review, Volume 47, 2023

[11] Order Issuing Certificate re Gas Transmission Northwest, LLC’s GTN Xpress Project under CP22-2, October 23, 2023 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[12] Inland Northwest GTN Xpress Weeks of Actions, October 27, 2023 Wild Idaho Rising Tide