Activists Going After Export Pipelines in Hopes of Stopping Future Development
From the Houston Chronicle:
With growing volumes of natural gas from Texas and the rest of the United States sold abroad, developers are rushing to build new pipelines connecting oil and gas fields with border crossings and shipping ports.
But a growing number of landowners and environmentalists are fighting those projects at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in federal courts, challenging the notion that pipeline projects carrying gas destined for export are entitled to the same privileges granted infrastructure projects serving American customers.
Under federal law, pipeline developers can seize land for construction as long as the project is deemed in “the public interest.” In the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals, the city of Oberlin, Ohio is challenging FERC’s 2017 approval of a 275-mile pipeline moving Appalachian natural gas to Michigan through their city, arguing in part FERC erred because a substantial portion of the gas will be exported to Canada.Click here to read more.