FERC Commissioner Says the Obvious: Their Pipeline Approval Process Favors Corporate Polluters

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- SNL News reported Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member Richard Glick said FERC’s process for approving gas pipelines needs to be balanced because it’s currently too favorable toward the companies building the pipeline. Commissioner Glick said, “these pipelines are being located in areas that are not as remote as they used to be," and “[p]eople are being impacted. Communities are being impacted." Glick also noted that the practice of companies selling pipeline capacity to their own subsidiaries to justify demand was “particularly troubling.”

In response, Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign Director Kelly Martin released the following statement:

"It’s encouraging to hear a FERC commissioner acknowledge the harm to communities and climate risks of dirty, dangerous fracked gas pipelines. For too long, FERC’s outdated policies have allowed corporate polluters to enter into agreements with their own subsidiaries to justify  projects that we just don’t need. Recent court decisions, basic science and common sense clearly show that FERC’s approval of these pipelines has been inadequate and with clean, renewable energy affordable and abundant, it’s clear that fracked gas pipelines have no place in our communities."