Environmentalists call on Biden admin to tank natural gas project amid nationwide arctic blast

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A big coalition of environmental activist organizations are calling on the Biden administration to use a little-known regulatory maneuver to block a significant natural gas enlargement project within the Pacific Northwest.

In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, greater than 140 teams, together with the Center for Biological Diversity, Columbia Riverkeeper and Friends of the Earth, known as on the company to intervene within the approval strategy of the Gas Transmission Northwest XPress Project (GTNXP). They argued the motion was mandatory as a result of the project would damage decarbonization objectives and lead to air pollution.

“As fossil fuel combustion is the primary contributor to the greenhouse gasses causing climate change, phasing out fossil fuel combustion as rapidly as possible is a policy imperative agreed upon by an overwhelming consensus of climate scientists,” the organizations wrote to Regan of their letter obtained by Fox News Digital. 

“We are in the midst of a crucial handful of years in which — by concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — we can still avoid locking in the worst impacts of climate change,” they continued. “The President himself has called climate change an ‘existential threat.'”

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Joe Biden, Michael Regan

President Biden talks to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan at a White House environmental justice ceremony final 12 months. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

According to vitality developer TC Energy, the $75 million project would leverage the agency’s current infrastructure to enhance the operational GTN pipeline’s incremental mainline capability by 150,000 dekatherms per day, sufficient to energy roughly 500,000 further houses within the area. The GTN pipeline travels via Idaho, Washington and Oregon and serves California clients.

The enlargement project — which might improve three explicit current compressor stations on the prevailing system that has transported natural gas for many years — acquired approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in October after months of delays amid considerations over its local weather influence.

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In their letter to Regan, although, the eco teams stated the EPA might invoke its authority below the Clean Air Act to decide FERC’s environmental overview of the project was “unsatisfactory from the standpoint of public health, welfare or environmental quality,” and refer it to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). 

The teams referenced one earlier instance of the EPA invoking the authority when, in 1996, it intervened FERC rulemaking. They additional famous that EPA’s authority just isn’t time-barred or restricted by the post-decisional stage of the method.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission commissioner Willie Phillips waits to testify during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday, March 3, 2022, to review FERC's recent guidance on natural gas pipelines." (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Willie Phillips waits to testify throughout a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee listening to in March 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc through Getty Images)

“We urge EPA to refer this decision to CEQ on several counts: the project’s enormous social costs to society; its resultant emissions making existing state-level climate commitments impossible to meet; FERC’s stark failure to meet its statutory obligations under [National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)], which includes its refusal to consider several of EPA’s recommendations as a cooperating agency; and for its inconsistency with CEQ NEPA guidance,” they continued.

And they pointed to EPA’s personal feedback from 2022 on GTNXP, figuring out its “environmental concern.”

However, the teams’ effort was blasted by TC Energy, which famous that excessive chilly circumstances are sweeping throughout the nation and that Americans largely rely on natural gas for warmth. According to Fox Weather, a current arctic blast led to freezing temperatures, not less than 10 deaths and transportation delays nationwide, and a second blast is predicted to influence 75% of Americans this weekend.

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“With cold temperatures gripping the nation, it is imperative that consumers across the United States have access to affordable and reliable supplies of natural gas,” TC Energy spokesperson Michael Tadeo advised Fox News Digital. “Since 2014, demand on the existing GTN system has surged more than 50 percent. The GTNXP project, consisting of limited software and other upgrades to existing infrastructure, would help meet this increasing demand and help lower natural gas prices for consumers.”

“FERC’s bipartisan approval of this project reaffirmed that it is in the public interest and is critical to keeping energy affordable and reliable in California and the Pacific Northwest,” Tadeo stated. “With strong support from labor unions, consumers and elected officials, TC Energy remains committed to putting this important project into service as soon as possible.”

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., was one among a number of lawmakers to call on FERC to approve the natural gas pipeline project. She argued it could assist “domestic energy production and boost our energy security while also helping lower utility bills for families.” (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Images)

Nearly half of U.S. houses rely on natural gas, piped instantly to a furnace, for house heating. Another 40% rely on electrical energy — nearly all of which is generated by natural gas nationwide — to energy electrical house heaters, in accordance to a Washington Post evaluation of the 2017-2021 American Community Survey.

Still, environmentalists have repeatedly pushed initiatives to each lower natural gas hookups in new building and exchange natural gas-fired energy crops with inexperienced vitality sources.

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“I’m at a loss as to how we’re supposed to deliver the energy that consumers need when they need it most if we don’t have the capacity to deliver that energy, if we’re not allowed to upgrade facilities and accommodate the energy that growth is already demanding,” Northwest Gas Association Executive Director Dan Kirschner advised Fox News Digital. “It’s not a matter of the future. This is demand that’s online.”

“These activists and others are focusing all their firepower on even the smallest projects,” Kirschner stated. “This is not an expansion in the true sense of the word — there’s no piping laid in the ground. It’s an upgrade. It’s upgrading facilities and software to push a little more gas across through the system, to serve needs that we know are there, especially for these coldest days of the year.”

In addition to the Northwest Gas Association, GTNXP has acquired assist from native labor unions and Republican lawmakers.

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