California, Oregon and Washington are fighting a proposed $75mn expansion of the Gas Transmission Northwest natural gas pipeline they say is unneeded because of the region's switch to clean electricity.
The expansion project, named GTN Xpress, would add 150mn cf/d (4.2mn m³/d)of incremental capacity to the Gas Transmission Northwest mainline by making upgrades at three compressor stations. Two gas utilities in the northwest US and Canadian producer Tourmaline Oil have signed long-term contracts for the additional capacity.
But California, Oregon and Washington are urging the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject the project. The expansion is unnecessary, they say, because it will take about 47 years to fully depreciate the project, whereas existing state laws will begin to reduce natural gas demand decades earlier.
"As the states transition to 100pc clean electricity, the amount of methane needed for electricity generation will decline, freeing up capacity for other uses or reducing overall need," the states said in comments to FERC on Monday.
The three states have set goals to switch to clean electricity by 2040-45, alongside other efforts to cut building energy demand with efficiency standards. The states say their initiatives will cut demand and make the capacity from GTN Xpress unnecessary, saddling captive customers with additional costs.
Canadian midstream company TC Energy, which operates the existing 1,377-mile (2,216km) pipeline system, has defended the expansion project as necessary to serve demand. The company is seeking approval of the expansion project in the next two months so it can meet an in-service date of 1 November 2023. The pipeline transports gas from Canada to Idaho, Washington and Oregon close to the California border.
The state focus on if the pipeline is needed comes more than a year after a court rebuffed FERC over its 2018 authorization of the $220mn Spire STL natural gas pipeline that serves St Louis, Missouri. State officials at the time of permitting had also argued the project was unnecessary.
