Sierra Club Florida News shared a link to the following article:
U.S. Court of Appeals Rejects FERC’s Approval of Sabal Trail Pipeline
In Major Climate Decision, D.C. Circuit Rejects Federal Approval of Sabal Trail Pipeline
Last week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) attempts to downplay the massive climate impacts of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, a $3.5 billion project that includes the 515-mile Sabal Trail pipeline. FERC and the pipeline companies argued that even though the project’s purpose is to transport fracked gas through Alabama and Georgia to Florida power plants, FERC nonetheless could ignore the greenhouse gas emissions from burning the gas at those plants.
- FERC is the “legally relevant cause” of the climate-altering emissions because it has the power to deny a pipeline based on harm to the environment.
- FERC has estimated that the pipeline will transport 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas, and can use this number to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
- FERC’s vague assertions that “some” emissions may “potentially” be offset by coal plant retirements were so devoid of meaningful information that the environmental impact statement “fail[ed] to fulfill its primary purpose.”
- Even if the power plants are subject to state or federal greenhouse-gas regulations in the future, such requirements cannot substitute for a proper NEPA analysis (citing a landmark NEPA case from 1971).
Read the original post at http://www.sierraclubfloridanews.org/2017/08/us-court-of-appeals-rejects-fercs.html.
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