Our old frenemies at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) have proposed a new rule for blanket certificates, and as usual it’s a rubber stamp for frackers to run roughshod over our climate and communities.
FERC says “The blanket certificate program provides an administratively efficient means to … offer a limited set of services, provided each activity complies with constraints on costs and environmental impacts …”. In other words, they’re supposed to be used for limited, small changes to existing projects, without having to go through the whole process of re-applying for a permit. But we call bullshit.
What FERC is actually doing is giving frackers the green light to run roughshod over our climate and communities by supersizing existing, and in some cases derelict, gas infrastructure like pipelines, compressor stations and, now for the first time, LNG export facilities. They’re letting bigger and bigger projects qualify for blanket certificates while asking less and less of the frackers in terms of environmental review, climate protection, and community notice.
Click here to send your own message calling bullshit with us and our friends at BXE. We’ll give you tools to send a quick comment to the office of public participation, as well as instructions on how to formally efile your own comment. We’ll bundle all the messages together and submit them to the correct dockets to make sure FERC gets the message, and we’ll be outside the Commissioners’ meeting on June 18 to make our protest visible.
Two projects prove why FERC’s expanded blanket certificate program is bullshit.
Argent LNG
Argent LNG is a Liquefied Natural Gas export project, and would be the 2nd largest project in Louisiana if built. It’s also BP’s first deepwater drilling project since the deepwater horizon spill more than 20 years ago. The LNG facility would be built in the fragile hurricane- and flood-prone Gulf Coast wetlands south of New Orleans. And the gas would come from an existing network of deepwater drilling rigs in Gulf. But this is the most dangerous, “ultra deep water” drilling with a huge impact on local wildlife and ecosystems.
Argent’s owners and investors are trying to rush approval of the project with a blanket certificate from FERC so they can eventually export more than 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per year by 2030. Every bit of it to be sold on the international market where it will drive climate change, pollute the air, and drive up energy costs for US customers. Normally, a project this big, this risky, and with this many potential impacts wouldn’t qualify for a blanket certificate, but FERC conveniently changed the rules in May to allow much bigger projects to qualify and specifically said LNG facilities (which are usually too big and too new) could qualify as well. Argent LNG’s blanket certificate review comments are due July 6, and comments on the FERC proposed rule changes on blanket certificates are due July 7. Click here to submit your comment now and we’ll make sure it’s included in both dockets.
Green Chile pipeline/Project Jupiter
Energy Transfer (of Dakota Access Pipeline infamy) is asking for a blanket certificate to build 18 miles of 24-inch diameter natural gas pipeline, which it calls Green Chile. The pipeline itself is a problem, but the bigger issue is that Green Chile would only have one customer: the massive Data center called Project Jupiter. Green Chile pipeline is to supply the gas so that Project Jupiter can power itself with its very own fleet of natural gas power plants.
But Project Jupiter is too big to be covered by any blanket certificate. The campus alone is bigger than New York’s Central Park, more than 1,400 acres. And those power-hungry data centers could need as much as two-and-a-half gigawatts of electricity, more than the local electric grid can possibly supply and more than half of what flesh and blood New Mexicans consume now. There are also concerns about the impacts on local wildlife, agriculture, and water use in this drought-stricken part of the desert. Green Chile pipeline is not currently accepting comments at FERC, though you can send an e-comment anytime telling them you oppose the project. But while we wait for new on Project Jupiter and the pipeline, you can send a comment to FERC opposing the blanket certificate changes, and those are due July 7.