Underground Construction - December 2022 - 16

WASHINGTONWATCH
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) continues
to dispatch environmental objections to pipeline projects.
Even Chairman Richard Glick, who had originally made reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions his guiding light, is
turning a deaf ear.
Facing the end of his term and, undoubtedly, worried about
casting votes viewed as anti-pipeline, which might produce
opposition to his Senate renomination, Glick and another
Democratic commissioner, Allison Clements, voted with three
other commissioners to approve a 24-mile Texas Gas pipeline
by a vote of 5-0 on Oct. 20. This was despite a number of environmental
objections from the Sierra Club and a group called
Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana (CAC).
In a second, recent instance, FERC staff dispatched environmental
concerns about the already-in-operation Spire STL
pipeline, in a final environmental impact statement (EIS) on
Oct. 7. It rejects demands by the Sierra Club and Environmental
Defense Fund to calculate upstream GHG emissions, address
methane leaks from pipelines and, in some way, limit the pipeline's
operations because of air and noise pollution impacts on
environmental justice (i.e. minority) communities.
Spire is operating on a temporary certificate; FERC conducted
an EIS after a federal appeals court in Washington remanded
the project back to FERC in June 2021, because of a
failure to properly consider an affiliate relationship between
Spire STL and Spire Energy. FERC has not issued a decision on
the affiliate issue yet.
The two Sierra Club attorneys who filed briefs in each of
those two cases did not reply to requests for comments.
In both the Spire and Texas Gas dockets, the staff and the
commissioners frustrated environmentalists.
" The law clearly requires FERC to consider all reasonably
foreseeable effects of gas projects, including their upstream
and downstream effects, " said Gillian Giannetti, the top FERC
watcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
" FERC is wise to apply the law, rather than dodge it. "
While the FERC refused to consider upstream GHG emissions
in both cases, it has not categorically ruled that out, noted
Giannetti.
" The gas industry has acted like Chicken Little, crying that
FERC should never consider a project's upstream and downstream
emissions. The fact that the industry is scared about
FERC doing its job should be a red flag for anyone who cares
about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, " he added.
In the Henderson County Expansion Project, Texas Gas pro16
DECEMBER 2022 | UCONonline.com
Stephen Barlas | Washington, D.C. Editor
FERC Rejects Environmental Concerns
About Gas Pipeline Projects
posed to provide up to 220,000 MMBtu/d of transportation service
to CenterPoint's new natural gas-fired electric generation
turbines at the A.B. Brown Plant in Posey County, Ind. These
will replace CenterPoint's coal-fired generating facilities.
The switch will result in a big drop in greenhouse gas emissions.
" Assuming the natural gas-fired generation operates at a
100-percent load factor, replacing the two coal-fired units would
result in a net reduction of 2,075,603 tons carbon dioxide equivalent
(CO2 e) of GHG emissions per year, " FERC stated.
Still not satisfied
This should have been a big win for environmentalists.
Nonetheless, CAC and Sierra Club filed separate protests raising
arguments related to project need and environmental concerns.
Among the issues raised were supposed availability of nongas
alternatives, failure to consider upstream GHG emissions,
potential damage to minority communities, and noise from
construction. CAC demanded FERC hold public hearings,
but the commission refused, claiming everyone who wanted
to comment had ample opportunity to do so through scoping
meetings and the public docket.
CAC argued FERC had to supplement its draft EIS, based on
the Inflation Reduction Act, which will offer $400 billion in tax
credits and directs spending to fund clean energy and transmission
resilience investments. The point was that those funds would
make renewable resources more affordable for CenterPoint, in
conjunction with replacing the coal-fired combustion.
Besides urging FERC to consider alternative portfolios
for CenterPoint that are less reliant on new gas supply and
allegedly could be developed at lower cost, while reliably serving
load, the group also wanted FERC to " seriously assess the
potential for reducing environmental impacts via the electric
compression alternative. "
Texas Gas pointed out that the Indiana Utility Regulatory
Commission (IURC), not FERC, is responsible for selecting
the resources necessary to integrate CenterPoint's renewable
resources. FERC agreed saying, " The IURC specifically found
that 'the flexible and controllable nature of the gas CTs' will
support the intermittent nature of the renewable generation in
[CenterPoint's] Preferred Portfolio to ensure system reliability. "
The Sierra Club seconded CAC's arguments that FERC
should have considered upstream GHG emissions in its EIS and
that an associated failure was its refusal to characterize the project's
GHG emissions as " significant " or " insignificant. "
FERC's reason for not doing that was the commission " is con
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