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In this Tuesday June 6, 2017 file photo, a No Pipeline sign is posted next to a property line marker only a few feet from the center line of the route of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Bolar, Va.
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In climate push, federal reviews to nudge new infrastructure projects toward clean energy

Steve Helber/AP

In climate push, federal reviews to nudge new infrastructure projects toward clean energy

WASHINGTON — Federal energy regulators are working to consider greenhouse gas emissions and environmental justice concerns when approving new infrastructure like oil and gas pipelines, while easing barriers to renewables and energy storage, like the large-scale batteries developed and produced in the Pittsburgh region.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is moving to revise a two-decade-old standard that guides approval of proposed interstate natural gas pipelines, FERC Chair Richard Glick told a congressional panel this week.

The moves signal major changes ahead at FERC, a relatively obscure independent agency with a wide influence on energy markets and what kind of projects in Pennsylvania get the green light.

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FERC is expected to look different under Mr. Glick, who, as President Joe Biden’s choice as chair, will give the commission a Democratic majority with the expiration of a Republican commissioner’s term in the coming weeks.

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“Whether it is prolonged record cold or the heat waves, drought and wildfires we are again witnessing in the West, climate change poses a distinct threat to grid reliability,” Mr. Glick testified to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, explaining a rule-making on extreme weather events.

FERC has emerged as a key lever for Mr. Biden and Democrats to push a climate agenda forward. If Congress approves hundreds of billions of new infrastructure spending, it will be up to the federal permitting regime and environmental approvals to shape how that money is translated into projects, experts have said.

The commission oversees the interstate transmission and sale of electricity and natural gas, reviews proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals, manages the wholesale electricity markets and protects the reliability of the electric grid, among other things.

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FERC was used by former President Donald Trump, to varying degrees of success, to carry out his policies of bolstering fossil fuels as an energy resource.

In December 2019, FERC ordered the nation’s largest power grid operator, which oversees the flow of electricity through Pennsylvania and surrounding states, to make changes that would protect natural gas and coal plants from falling revenue.

Fossil fuel plants, the commission argued, faced competition from nuclear and renewable energy facilities, whose operations were aided, and in some cases bailed out, by state government subsidies. Operators of nuclear plants, like the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, have lobbied to be considered for clean energy subsidies as a source of carbon-free power.

That view will shift in the other direction, Mr. Glick said at the hearing, where he sat along the four other commissioners, including the outgoing Republican, Neil Chatterjee, who chaired the commission until last November.

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FERC is looking to consider greenhouse gas emissions as it revises a 22-year-old standard for determining if a proposed natural gas pipeline is necessary and in the public interest.

Mr. Glick also installed Montina Cole, an environmental lawyer, to be the FERC’s first senior counsel for environmental justice and equity.

Democrats on the committee cheered FERC’s actions, framing them as necessary to carry out the committee’s proposed climate legislation that calls for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

FERC’s mission is “critical to ensuring we can move renewable power from our wind and solar corridors to major population and industrial centers,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the committee’s chair.

“For too long, regulators have overlooked the environmental justice and equity concerns associated with siting new natural gas pipelines, hydroelectric licenses and other projects,” Mr. Pallone said. “This is an important step to ensure these concerns are no longer ignored.”

Republicans vented that the commission was overstepping its authority. U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., said FERC was wading into environmental considerations that belonged in the Environmental Protection Agency’s territory. 

He pressed Mr. Glick on his plans to weigh greenhouse emissions at the drilling site and the power plant when reviewing the impact of pipelines.

“You could deny a pipeline be constructed,” Mr. McKinley said to Mr. Glick. “If that’s true, what level of CO2 emissions is going to be acceptable from a natural gas power plant that would allow you to approve a pipeline?”

Mr. Glick argued FERC has the expertise and that federal courts have ordered the commission to make such considerations.

“We actually examine all sorts of environmental issues with regard to a proposed pipeline,” he said, but he said he couldn’t predict what CO2 limits would be. 

Red tape, new projects

Lawmakers in both parties questioned FERC about its red tape when it comes to new projects.

U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills — a proponent of large-scale batteries that can store and dispatch solar and wind energy when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing — said “regulatory barriers” were a concern for battery-makers hoping to connect to the grid. 

Mr. Doyle referenced EOS Energy Storage, a New Jersey-based company which manufactures zinc batteries in a former Westinghouse facility in Turtle Creek. The company could not be reached for comment this week.

Despite two recent FERC orders that sought to make it easier for batteries, Mr. Doyle said, “I’m hearing concerns from industry members that wholesale power market design still doesn't value the reliability contributions of energy storage.”

Mr. Glick agreed with Mr. Doyle and promised FERC would review ways to do spur battery connection in the coming weeks.

“We know that we’re going to have a significant amount of intermittent solar and intermittent wind generation on the grid,” Mr. Glick said. “We don’t provide value, we don’t compensate resources” like batteries.

U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair, asked Mr. Glick how the commission was working to streamline pipeline project approval.

“What we’re trying to do is reduce the amount of litigation that occurs afterward,” he said. He noted both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, projects proposed to carry natural gas southeast from West Virginia, were tied up in lawsuits over FERC proceedings, resulting in orders for FERC to revisit its reviews. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was cancelled last summer.

“All it does is add billions of dollars in litigation,” Mr. Glick said. “We’re trying to provide certainty upfront so that when pipeline companies come to the commission, we do the right thing, and they don’t have to come back a second time.”

Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, Twitter @PGdanielmoore

First Published: July 31, 2021, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: July 31, 2021, 11:45 a.m.

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In this Tuesday June 6, 2017 file photo, a No Pipeline sign is posted next to a property line marker only a few feet from the center line of the route of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Bolar, Va.  (Steve Helber/AP)
In this June 12, 2014, photo, pipes carrying liquified natural gas to and from a holding tank, seen in background, at Dominion Energy's Cove Point LNG Terminal in Lusby, Md.  (Cliff Owen/AP)
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Steve Helber/AP
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