• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Coastal GasLink Cost Skyrockets 70% to $11.2B August 2, 2022
Ottawa Releases Regulatory ‘Frame’ for Net-Zero Grid by 2035 August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

FERC Review Could Upend U.S. Pipeline Approval Process

April 22, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

Rosemary Oakeshott/Geograph

Rosemary Oakeshott/Geograph

 

The approval process for new natural gas pipelines in the United States could be up for an overhaul, after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asked for comments on a regulation that has been in place for nearly 20 years.

“The once-routine approval of natural gas pipelines has become fraught in recent years, as environmental protesters have tried to lean on the commission to get it to reject pipes in the name of climate change,” Politico Morning Energy reports. FERC decisions “often wind up in court,” and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “has already kicked one pipeline back to FERC over its failure to consider end use impacts.”

The commission has also heard from homeowners protesting construction projects, and environmental groups asking it to assess pipeline projects “holistically, and not in small, individual segments,” ME notes.

In a profusely-footnoted letter to the five FERC commissioners, a group of 11 major environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Sierra Club applauded the agency’s decision to revisit its 1999 Natural Gas Policy Statement and called for a “21st century approach to pipeline review”, adding that the “threshold question” in any review should be the need for new pipeline infrastructure.

“The key determinant in deciding whether a project is in the public interest is whether the project is needed to support energy demands,” the organizations stated. “A project that is not needed to satisfy energy requirements that also will cause permanent environmental and economic impacts is antithetical to the public interest.”

The commission’s official Notice of Inquiry (NOI) “seeks comment on how FERC evaluates the need for pipelines, its use of eminent domain, the environmental impact of pipeline projects, and the efficiency of FERC’s permitting process,” Utility Dive states. Parts of the NOI focus on transparency and efficiency for generation owners and utilities, and “the order would also benefit energy storage by classifying it as a large-scale generator for interconnection.”

In the months leading up to the NOI, FERC commissioners questioned the practice of approving new pipelines based on contracts, or “precedent agreements”, signed before the projects were approved. Those deals were previously taken as reasonable evidence that there was demand for a project, but FERC is now less confident in the approach, particularly when the deals are signed between pipeliners and their own affiliated companies.

The existence of “precedent agreements that are in significant part between the pipeline developer and its affiliates is insufficient to carry the developer’s burden to show that the pipeline is needed,” Commissioner Richard Glick wrote in January, in a dissent to FERC’s approval of the proposed PennEast pipeline in Carbon County, Pennsylvania.

But “the Republican majority at FERC has consistently voted to approve pipeline projects under current rules since the agency’s quorum was restored last year, and at Thursday’s FERC meeting they sought to reassure the gas sector that they are not looking to overhaul the approval process,” Utility Dive notes.

“We don’t build pipelines in this country on speculation,” said Trump-appointed commissioner Robert Powelson, and that’s a “damn good thing for consumers.”

But one analysis cited by the Seeking Alpha investment blog predicted that closer attention to public input and actual market need for pipelines would lead to longer approval processes. The story lists a handful of pipelines and one export facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) that would be affected by the change in process.



in Legal & Regulatory, Oil & Gas, Pipelines / Rail Transport, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Bernard Spragg/flickr
Energy Politics

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
245
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons
Hydrogen

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
287
Protect The Planet
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
375

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Bernard Spragg/flickr

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
245
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
287
Protect The Planet

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
375
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
1.5k
Joseph Brent/Flickr

Green Hydrogen Will Cost Less than Fossil-Fuelled ‘Blue’, Shell CEO Admits

August 7, 2022
746
Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 8, 2022
451

Recent Posts

Focus Blame for Climate Change on Fossils and Governments, Ecoanalytics Advises

August 11, 2022
125
TheKurgan/Wikipedia

Ontario Pension Giant May Be Getting the Memo on Fossil Divestment, Members Say

August 11, 2022
33
@stan_sdcollins/Twitter

Stranded Communities Hope for Emergency Food Supplies as Newfoundland Wildfires Rage

August 11, 2022
14
Maurizio Pesce/Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Lobbying Points to Ontario as Possible EV Manufacturing Site

August 11, 2022
34
MENA/Flickr

Ontario Gains from U.S. EV Tax Credit, But Plans No Incentives for Local Drivers

August 11, 2022
37
Twitter

Shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Plant Raises Fears for Nuclear Safety

August 11, 2022
32
Next Post
Mike Mozart/Flickr

Colorado Lawsuit Seeks Climate-Related Costs from Exxon, Suncor

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}