Pressure Mounts on Biden to Stop Expansion of Northwest Pipeline

Environmentalists are urging the Biden administration to use a little-known provision of the Clean Air act in order to prevent the planned expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest by TC Energy Corp., as reported by Bloomberg.

The GTN Xpress Project, which aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline by about 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October, as reported by The Associated Press.

TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Environmentalists are calling on the administration to conduct a fresh review of the project using an obscure legal tool, as outlined in a letter to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and top administration officials by almost 150 organizations.

They argue that the project would increase pollution, threaten public safety, and undermine decarbonization commitments by Oregon, Washington, and California. However, supporters of the project claim it is necessary to provide reliable, affordable energy for California.

TC Energy states that the project “will upgrade three existing compressor stations on the Gas Transmission Northwest system to meet increasing demand from residential, commercial and industrial customers in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States while also providing supply reliability to the Pacific Northwest and West Coast regions as natural gas supplies coming from the Rockies region of the United States decline.”