PORTLAND, Ore. (NEWSnetAP) — Federal regulators on Thursday approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest, despite protest by environmental groups and some officials in West Coast states.
The project, known as GTN Xpress, aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho, Oregon and Washington, by about 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave it the green light in a vote Thursday.
TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline: in Kootenai County, Idaho; Walla Walla County, Washington; and Sherman County, Oregon. Compressor stations help to maintain the pressure and flow of gas over long distances in a pipeline.
Environmental groups criticized the decision. Audrey Leonard, staff attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper, an environmental nonprofit, said the commission “failed to listen to Senators, Governors, State Attorneys General, Tribes, and the public in its rubber stamp of unnecessary fracked gas in the Northwest.”
Leonard said potential spills and explosions on the pipeline, which was built in the 1960s, would harm the environment and present a heightened wildfire risk.
“An explosion of that level in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon would be catastrophic,” she said.
Leonard said Columbia Riverkeeper will appeal the federal regulators’ decision and submit a petition for a rehearing.
The pipeline belongs to TC Energy of Calgary, Canada. The company said the project is necessary to meet consumer demand.
The 1,377-mile pipeline runs from the Canadian border through a corner of Idaho and into Washington state and Oregon, connecting with a pipeline going into California.
The attorneys general of California, Oregon and Washington, citing the commission’s draft environmental impact statement for the project, said it would result in more than 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year for at least the next three decades. The agency’s final assessment revised that number downward by roughly half in calculations contested by environmental groups.
The agency’s chairman, Willie Phillips, reiterated its stance after Thursday’s vote.
“There was no evidence presented that this project would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions,” he told reporters. “The commission determined that this project was needed and therefore we support its approval.”
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