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Federal regulators on Thursday approved a Canadian company's plan to expand a Pacific Northwest natural gas pipeline, despite opposition from top West Coast officials, including Oregon's governor, attorney general and two U.S. senators.
The officials, backed by climate advocates, had called the GTN Express project unnecessary and a threat to state efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Alberta-based TC Energy plans to upgrade three compression stations to boost throughput on a 1,377-mile pipeline that runs from British Columbia to southern Oregon, where it connects with other pipelines.
All four members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission supported certification of the project, although two registered as-yet-unspecified dissents in part. The commission did not immediately release its full order, and none of the commissioners used meeting time Thursday to discuss their reasoning.
A FERC environmental impact statement found pipeline operations and downstream emissions could increase GHG emissions by 1.3% in Oregon based on 2020 levels.
"We have to act upon the record," Willie L. Phillips, FERC's acting chair and a Biden appointee, said at a news conference after the meeting. "In the record of this proceeding there was no evidence presented that this project would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions."
Opponents had charged FERC undercounted the project's potential downstream emissions and said it was obligated to take into account state mandates to dramatically reduce GHG emissions — 90% by 2050 from a 2017-19 baseline, in Oregon's case.
Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley on Wednesday called the FERC decision "outrageous" but "not a surprise because the Commission is captured by the fossil fuel industry."
He and climate advocates had also raised pipeline safety concerns. After FERC's decision Thursday a coalition of project opponents vowed to continue their fight.
“The Commission’s decision violates the public interest and common sense, and we will file a petition for rehearing challenging this project," Audrey Leonard, staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper, said in a statement.