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Speaker 1: For about a month now, we've been tracking the rollbacks

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Speaker 1: of various environmental regulations and at the same time the

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Speaker 1: fast tracking of permits for new oil and gas projects.

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Speaker 1: What we've seen doing this reporting is that there's this

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Speaker 1: sort of two part lever happening. You've got the EPA

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Speaker 1: working on rollbacks at the same time that the Federal

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Speaker 1: Energy Regulatory Commission otherwise known as FERK, is working on

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Speaker 1: rubber stamping any oil and gas project that crosses its desk.

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Speaker 1: FERK is an almost impossible institution to write about or

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Speaker 1: even think about, and that's kind of by design. It's

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Speaker 1: incredibly complex and basically sort of a black box. Even

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Speaker 1: when they do public their reasoning behind different decisions, it's

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Speaker 1: so hard to parse that it's almost impossible to understand.

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Speaker 1: And that's from someone who reads energy policy stuff all

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Speaker 1: the time. I can only imagine what a layperson would

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Speaker 1: do with the FERK website. Those kinds of things are

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Speaker 1: what a new lawsuit against FERK is trying to undo.

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Speaker 1: The lawsuit was filed in the DC District Court by

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Speaker 1: Food and Water Watch and Berkshire Environmental Action against the

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Speaker 1: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and it charges that the national

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Speaker 1: body that regulates new gas infrastructure projects is failing to

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Speaker 1: consider the climate impacts of the pipelines and related infrastructure

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Speaker 1: that it's tasked with reviewing. Now this is important because

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Speaker 1: a few years ago, legislation was passed that requires FERK

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Speaker 1: to consider climate change impacts of the projects that it's

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Speaker 1: approving or not, except FURK hasn't really done that. They've

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Speaker 1: restricted emissions reviews to just looking at the construction phase

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Speaker 1: of a project, which is absurd when you're thinking about

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Speaker 1: oil and gas projects. Their justification is that they couldn't

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Speaker 1: possibly know what the future climate impacts will be of

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Speaker 1: any given project, which again just seems silly. The suit

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Speaker 1: is not against FERK for its process in general. It

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Speaker 1: focuses on a specific project in Massachusetts called the two

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Speaker 1: sixty one Upgrade project. It basically is a two mile

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Speaker 1: pipeline and a new compressor unit near Springfield, Massachusetts. There's

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Speaker 1: been a fair bit of back and forth about this

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Speaker 1: project in the local area, and ultimately FURK denied various

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Speaker 1: requests to stop the project. It did not do so unanimously.

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Speaker 1: There is one commissioner, Richard Glick, who pointed out that quote,

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Speaker 1: claiming that a project has no significant environmental impacts, while

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Speaker 1: at the same time refusing to assess the significance of

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Speaker 1: the project's impact on the most important environmental issue of

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Speaker 1: our time is not reasoned decision making. If Food and

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Speaker 1: Water Watch and the Berkshire Environmental Action Team win this case,

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Speaker 1: it could have major implications for the way that FURK

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Speaker 1: permits oil and gas projects across the country. I asked

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Speaker 1: Adam Carlesco, the attorney leading this case, to come on

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Speaker 1: and explain a bit more about it and what it

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Speaker 1: could mean. We'll have that conversation for you in a

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Speaker 1: minute after a word from this episode's sponsor. I'm Ami

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Speaker 1: Westervelt and this is drilled. Okay, So, Adam, what's the

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Speaker 1: backdrop of this CASEK is supposed to consider the climate

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Speaker 1: impacts of energy projects that it's permitting, right, So how

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Speaker 1: did that come about and how have they been able

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Speaker 1: to avoid doing that so far?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? This was a Sierra Club versus Firk twenty seventeen

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Speaker 2: decided case before the DC's circuit. It dealt with a

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Speaker 2: subal trail at a pipeline that was going through the southeast.

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Speaker 2: It was meant to feed a series of natural gas

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Speaker 2: powered power plants, and when FERK went to go issued

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Speaker 2: with certificate order for this project proceed they had essentially

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Speaker 2: dismissed all climate considerations emissions downstream of the pipeline, and

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Speaker 2: they had looked to really just include what kind of

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Speaker 2: emissions would come out of construction of these pipeline systems

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Speaker 2: and the compressor stations. So this was challenged in court

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Speaker 2: by Sierra Club. The DC's circuit came back and said

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Speaker 2: that FERK really could not disregard this sort of information.

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Speaker 2: It was something that was required under the National Environmental

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Speaker 2: Policy Act, or NEPA, and that when reviewing emissions under NIPA,

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Speaker 2: they needed to include reasonably foreseeable indirect effects, which would

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Speaker 2: be in the case of a pipeline which is designed

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Speaker 2: to be a conduit to convey gas for combustion, typically

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Speaker 2: the foreseeable event of that being combusted, especially if you

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Speaker 2: knew that this was going to two power plants. And

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Speaker 2: so the court handed back for this decision and said

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Speaker 2: you need to assess emissions downstream or adequately explain why

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Speaker 2: you cannot. And then FERK proceeded to move forward with

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Speaker 2: a policy after this decision that essentially disregarded that entire

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Speaker 2: case and what it had required of them by doing

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Speaker 2: more linguistic gymnastics, essentially to say that climate impacts are

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Speaker 2: innately unforeseeable. It's impossible for us to tell what's going

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Speaker 2: to be happening with much of gas moving through pipelines.

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Speaker 2: We're not getting any information within our app permit application

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Speaker 2: process from the pipeline developers who are trying, you know,

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Speaker 2: who would have the information as to where this gas

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Speaker 2: is coming from and where it's going to. They said

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Speaker 2: that they did not have this information, it could not

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Speaker 2: make reasonable projections. This was refuted in a case that

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Speaker 2: was then decided last year. I believe it was in November.

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Speaker 2: In the case was Lori Burkehead v. FIR, and the

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Speaker 2: court kind of danced around making a definitive answer because

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Speaker 2: the plaintiffs didn't directly address this issue, but within some

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Speaker 2: of the discussions of the court, they essentially came to

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Speaker 2: the conclusion that it was reasonably easy for FIRK to

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Speaker 2: ask pipeline applicants to give information as to where they're

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Speaker 2: getting this gas from. What would be the upstream effects?

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Speaker 2: Would this be incentivizing broader drilling that's going on within

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Speaker 2: the Marcella shale for a pipeline like the Atlantic Coast

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Speaker 2: Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Would this be going

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Speaker 2: to a power plant, with this be going to distribution

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Speaker 2: centers for combusting in homes? Would this be going to

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Speaker 2: know an ethane cracker so that you can make plastics

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Speaker 2: with it. These are the sorts of things that would

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Speaker 2: be reasonably foreseeable and direct effects. However, Firk has kind

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Speaker 2: of disregarded all of that and in a blanket policy

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Speaker 2: that says that because we somehow dodge around this question

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Speaker 2: and say that any and all emissions downstream and upstream

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Speaker 2: are completely unforeseeable, we don't know how any of these

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Speaker 2: projects will impact broader climate issues. We just can essentially

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Speaker 2: mark this zero and say that we don't even have

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Speaker 2: to address this elephant in the room. And by doing so,

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Speaker 2: they put their finger on the scale in favor of

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Speaker 2: project development, by having essentially the largest environmental issue of

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Speaker 2: our generation be completely disregarded when they're doing environmental review

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Speaker 2: of these projects, So they're not getting a good reasoned

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Speaker 2: agency decision making out of this process and not really

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Speaker 2: giving a reasonable information to concerning public, or even to

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Speaker 2: getting that information before regulators, the commission itself to make

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Speaker 2: reason decisions.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and then what are the particulars of this case

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Speaker 1: that you've.

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Speaker 2: Brought so this particular lawsuit. Those are the relatively small

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Speaker 2: project outside of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the town of Agawam.

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Speaker 2: It's about two miles of additional pipeline, a thicker pipeline,

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Speaker 2: and they are installing an upgrade to a compressor station

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Speaker 2: unit that already has two smaller compressor units in it,

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Speaker 2: taking those out, decommissioning them, and putting in one large

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Speaker 2: mega compressor unit that is roughly double the capacity of

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Speaker 2: the previous compressor station. And so we're challenging the approval

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Speaker 2: of this. Aside from the climate considerations, we have members

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Speaker 2: that live within the community. One of our declarence lives

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Speaker 2: five hundred feet from this compressor station unit, and before

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Speaker 2: they did the upgrades to put in the compressor units

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Speaker 2: that they're now decommissioning, she had lived there since nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy nine had never had an issue with this. Occasionally,

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Speaker 2: small scale compressors would run during the winter to get

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Speaker 2: gas further into the state, but now with the broader

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Speaker 2: expansion of gas power throughout much of the northeast. She's

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Speaker 2: seeing this come on regularly getting blowed down events that

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Speaker 2: are blowing a mix of methane and natural gas and

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Speaker 2: other sorts of fossil fuel emissions into the ambient atmosphere.

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Speaker 2: Being five hundred feet away, it's getting into her house.

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Speaker 2: She's had headaches, she's had to go to the hospital

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Speaker 2: for these issues. This compressor station is also about two

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Speaker 2: thousand feet from six Flags in New England, and it's

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Speaker 2: to the west of it, so downwind of where this

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Speaker 2: compressor's unit is. We don't feel that FERK has really

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Speaker 2: adequately assessed many of the issues that are coming before

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Speaker 2: the Commission that needs to be included when they make

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Speaker 2: the assessment that this is in the public necessity And

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Speaker 2: I think the certificate is called the Certificate Order of

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Speaker 2: Public Convenience and Necessity. So the reth tomic and consideration

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Speaker 2: is to the environmental impacts of their harms weighed against

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Speaker 2: how much the society and the broader community requires this

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Speaker 2: sort of infrastructure. And in making this conclusion, they've disregarded

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Speaker 2: letters from the Massachusetts Attorney General's office saying that you're

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Speaker 2: promptly just regarding plans that could promote renewable energy. You're

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Speaker 2: not including considerations of electric power compressor units rather than

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Speaker 2: just sticking to a gas power compressure unit. They didn't

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Speaker 2: do a full assessment of this project because they'd rather

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Speaker 2: rubber stamp. Many of these things that come from before

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Speaker 2: them on behalf of pipeline companies Kindrim Morgan, these large,

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Speaker 2: kind of vertically integrated companies, oftentimes they wish to see

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Speaker 2: these projects kind of moved through. I think in past

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Speaker 2: several years there's really only been one project before FIRK

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Speaker 2: that's been rejected as it pertains to natural gas. So

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Speaker 2: the rates of approval for FURK are incredibly high, and

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Speaker 2: that's why they have a reputation of being a rubber stamp.

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Speaker 2: So there are a number of issues pertaining to this

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Speaker 2: particular compressor station. And it doesn't help that it's going

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Speaker 2: to be constructed within Springfield, Massachusetts, which the American Allergy

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Speaker 2: and Asthma Foundation found to be the number one worst

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Speaker 2: city in the country for asthmatics due to a mix

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Speaker 2: of air pollutant, pollen, hospital visits, and asthmatic fatalities. So

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Speaker 2: you're getting worse air quality in an already vulnerable air shit,

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Speaker 2: you know.

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Speaker 1: It's funny. When I first heard about this case, I

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Speaker 1: initially assumed it was about the Weymouth compressor, because that's

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Speaker 1: another one that seems to be being built to transport

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Speaker 1: gas for which there are no customers. And there's all

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Speaker 1: these weird issues where they haven't really thought through where

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Speaker 1: the pipeline is coming from, where it's going, sort of

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Speaker 1: a pipeline and nowhere situation.

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Speaker 2: And that brings us to a broader issue that has

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Speaker 2: been going on with FIRK generally, and it's something that

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Speaker 2: was actually raised in a letter within the FERK docket

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Speaker 2: from both Senators of Massachusetts, Marky and Warren. They said

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Speaker 2: that there was a metering station that was associated with

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Speaker 2: this project that was considered under permit applications by the

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Speaker 2: State of Massachusetts that FURK considered to be a separate project,

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Speaker 2: and they subdivided these projects so that they could review

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Speaker 2: them individually say that because they're so individually small, they

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Speaker 2: don't rise to the threshold significant environmental impact, and so

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Speaker 2: they keep doing this by making particular projects as small

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Speaker 2: as possible, and then they don't review the broader infrastructure

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Speaker 2: built out within a city, within an area, within a region,

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Speaker 2: and so when they wind up approving compressor station pipeline

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Speaker 2: associated infrastructure after associated infrastructure. They never take a broader

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Speaker 2: look as to what that looks like in terms of

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Speaker 2: the growing and snaking pipeline system across this country, and

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Speaker 2: so they're causing death by a million cuts.

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Speaker 1: That's interesting because you know, we've been tracking new permits

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Speaker 1: and regulatory requests since the pandemic hit, and it seems

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Speaker 1: like FIRK has been really fast tracking oil and gas

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Speaker 1: permits lately.

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Speaker 2: They are, and it's grabbed the attention of not just

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Speaker 2: advocates like Food and Water Watch, but also the eyes

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Speaker 2: of the House Oversight Committee and their subcommittee on Civil Rights.

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Speaker 2: Jamie Raskin, who is my own representative down here in Maryland,

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Speaker 2: has led this a whole letter to FIRK on behalf

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Speaker 2: of a broader congressional delegation asking them to halt certificate

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Speaker 2: orders approving new infrastructure in the interim. And so they

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Speaker 2: promptly just regarded that saying that I think Chatterjee, the

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Speaker 2: chairman of FURK, gave some sort of platitude of how

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Speaker 2: we must serve our customers and do the best to

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Speaker 2: get projects going on, but they're not really considering what

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Speaker 2: is going on around them in the broader world, the

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Speaker 2: complete collapse of the energy industry, and they're still moving

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Speaker 2: forward like it's twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: It seems pretty nuts that these projects that won't even

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Speaker 1: be online for potentially years are somehow getting critical infrastructure

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Speaker 1: designations that are supposed to be for facilities that are

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Speaker 1: currently providing power.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: We've even seen some plastic plants getting that designation. There's

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Speaker 1: a shell plant under construction in Pennsylvania that was deemed critical.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that comes to a broader issue

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Speaker 2: as to how I think the more RelA Department of

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Speaker 2: Energy has been dealing with cracker and plasticization units and

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Speaker 2: considering them to be somehow tied to the energy system

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Speaker 2: just because they use the waste stream that comes off

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Speaker 2: of the oil and gas industry to essentially monetize it

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Speaker 2: and turn it into plastics.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So what's next for this case?

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Speaker 2: So it has been docketed before the DC circuit. Procedural

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Speaker 2: motions are going to be due May twenty second, and

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Speaker 2: then dispositive motions are going to be due June eighth,

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Speaker 2: and then dispositive would be motions to dismiss any sort

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Speaker 2: of challenges on standing. Once that has passed and then

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Speaker 2: it goes to briefing is on the merit, then hopefully

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Speaker 2: we would get some sort of expedited decision coming forward.

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Speaker 2: Since this is a project under construction. Motion dismiss is

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Speaker 2: kind of a standard movement from a lot of government

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Speaker 2: agencies as it relates to environmental litigation. That said, spoken

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Speaker 2: with some folks looked at the declarance that we have,

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Speaker 2: I feel like our standing is strong. We have people

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Speaker 2: who have been directly impacted by this, they live within

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Speaker 2: the community, they've been involved in the Furk process from

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Speaker 2: day one. These are the things that unless FIRK really

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Speaker 2: feels like burning taxpayer money and time trying to burn

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Speaker 2: down a clock, it would not be in the best

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Speaker 2: interests of everyone involved to proceed with challenging on standing grounds.

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Speaker 2: So we're hopeful that just you know, keeps moving, we

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Speaker 2: get to the marriage quickly and you know, get a

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Speaker 2: decision that's favorable to us.

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Speaker 1: Okay, great, we'll keep an eye out for it.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Adam, Oh, thank you for the interest and thank

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Speaker 2: you for getting this out there. I think it's important

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Speaker 2: and I'm glad that you guys are offering this service

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Speaker 2: to get this news out.

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Speaker 1: It for this time. We'll be back soon with more

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Speaker 1: stories coming out of our ongoing reporting on climate and

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