Advocates say the pipeline carries a high potential for explosions, wildfires and spills
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, approved the expansion of a fracked gas pipeline running through the Pacific Northwest in a blow to environmental advocates Oct. 19.
The Gas Transmission Northwest Xpress project, or GTNXP, is a 1,377-mile pipeline running from the Canadian border in Idaho through Eastern Washington, crossing the Columbia River into Central Oregon and stretching to the California border.
TC Energy, the Canadian company that owns and manages the pipelines, was the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline project. The company abandoned the Keystone XL project after President Joe Biden revoked a permit on his first day in office.
The GTNXP began transporting fossil fuels through its system in 1962, and the new project seeks to upgrade three existing compressor stations in Athol, Idaho, Starbuck, Washington and Kent, Oregon. The upgrades will increase the existing system's capacity by 150 million standard cubic feet of liquid natural gas per day, and will add an estimated 3.47 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year for at least the next 30 years, according to FERC’s environmental impact statement.
Environmental advocates say FERC should not allow the project to move forward due to the devastating impacts fossil fuels have on the environment and the high potential for explosions, wildfires or spills. A TC Energy pipeline exploded 80 miles outside of Washington, D.C., in July, and the Keystone XL pipeline leaked a half-million gallons of crude oil into a Kansas creek last December.
Audrey Leonard, Columbia Riverkeeper staff attorney, said concerns about the project are three-fold, citing safety implications, climate change and demand.
"TC energy can't be trusted to build or maintain safe pipelines," Leonard said. "Any sort of issue or explosion in arid Eastern Washington, Idaho, Oregon, would be catastrophic."
Leonard said the FERC environmental impact statement only includes carbon emissions after production and is a significant undercount on the actual carbon GTNXP will release into the atmosphere.
"Those compressor stations are gas-fired themselves, and by upgrading them and having them run on higher horsepower, you're increasing the emissions from those sources," she said.
TC Energy applied to FERC to update and expand its infrastructure Oct. 4, 2021.
Since then, opposition mounted from political leaders from all three West Coast states, including governors, attorneys general and tribal nations. A coalition of all four U.S. Senators from Oregon and Washington urged the agency to reject the permit in a statement released the day before FERC approved the permit, saying it cannot ignore the financial cost and potential for environmental harm.
"TC Energy's project would increase rates for consumers, cause over $8.8 billion in climate damages and undermine our states' efforts to combat the climate crisis just so that a Canadian company can increase the shipment of Canadian fracked methane gas," the statement said.
Leonard said the decision flies in the face of Biden's commitments to addressing the climate crisis and taking environmental decisions to heart.
"This sort of decision from FERC, and those decisions that we're seeing from FERC across the board, are in direct conflict with that," Leonard said. "If we really want to make progress, then we can't be approving everything."
Leonard said environmental advocates Columbia Riverkeeper and Rogue Climate will file a petition for a rehearing directly to FERC, asking it to reconsider the decision.
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