FERC notches wins in D.C. Circuit: “Pipeline developers and federal regulators last week clocked victories in appellate court. Judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied petitions to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's authorizations of two proposals to upgrade or modify pipeline systems in New England and Pennsylvania. The court heard oral arguments in both cases last month. One challenge centers on Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC's "Orion project," which would add 12.9 miles of new pipe near its existing 300 Line in Pennsylvania. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network argued last month that FERC did not adequately analyze an alternative option to build a compressor station instead. That alternative course of action was included in an internal document, but not in the agency's final environmental assessment. FERC's exclusion of the compression alternative and its decision not to explain the differences between the draft and final reviews was not "arbitrary and capricious" under the Administrative Procedure Act, the court wrote in a Dec. 27 judgment. The judges also dismissed claims that the company improperly segmented review of Orion's impacts. "FERC appropriately regarded Tennessee's application for the project as functionally independent from other projects," according to the judgment. Maya van Rossum, head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said yesterday that an appeal in its lawsuit is unlikely. "We are forced to turn back to Congress," she said. The group is calling on lawmakers to toughen oversight of FERC activities and to make changes to the Natural Gas Act (NGA), which authorizes the agency to approve natural gas pipelines. Van Rossum said she is hopeful that the arrival of new legislators this year will help the group gain traction on its requests.”

[E&E News, 1/3/19] https://goo.gl/w6MMTa

With a Democratic House, Big Green goes on the offensive in 2019: “Environmentalists plan an aggressive agenda for the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives in the 116th Congress, seeking both to push a comprehensive climate policy and target Trump’s regulatory rollback through oversight and investigations. "We have some new legislative opportunities and some new opportunities to continue to hold the Trump administration accountable,” said Ana Unruh Cohen, government affairs director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Unruh Cohen's group is just one of several that are already pushing Democrats on House committees to counter the Trump administration’s roll-back of environmental and climate regulations, while also pressing for probes into his Cabinet. NRDC wants the Democratic leadership to “scrutinize” the actions of the Trump administration, both from a policy perspective, and in terms of the scandals that have characterized the administration’s environmental policy, said Unruh Cohen. Some environmentalists, though, would also like to build support for a bipartisan climate policy with Republicans, thinking that the Democratic House could create an opening for narrowly targeted legislation to gain bipartisan support… Congress can also exercise oversight through the appropriations process, Unruh Cohen noted. “There’s just a lot of oversight that needs to take place,” said Erich Pica, the president of Friends of the Earth. “That oversight and those investigations will feed into the legislative process, and more likely will feed into the appropriations process in the House.” Infrastructure will also be a big priority for environmentalists, who are on guard for attempts to roll back the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires environmental reviews for projects. Pica warned that it's not just Republicans who are under suspicion. “Democrats need to be put on notice too that rolling back NEPA is a no-go,” he said.”

[Washington Examiner, 1/3/19] https://goo.gl/C7YTd5

Guest Column: AFORR won't support new disposal facility: “Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation (or AFORR — a locally based nonprofit organization supporting preservation of natural resources of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation for the long-term benefit of DOE, the local community, and national and international interests) does NOT support establishment of a new disposal facility on the Oak Ridge Reservation for the following reasons: 1) DOE’s preferred sites in Bear Creek Valley would add to the inventory of contaminated land by putting waste in a clean area that is a greenfield; 2) AFORR believes the Energy Department wouldn’t be seeking a new landfill if the space in the existing landfill had been managed properly. If waste had been characterized before disposal to determine the best disposal path, much less waste would have been placed there; 3) Based on available characterization data, none of the candidate sites is suitable hydrologically. The presence of abundant surface and subsurface water requires significant engineering effort to manage, both through the operating period and after closure, relying on diversion structures, gravel drains, pipes, liners and caps, that can be expected to fail in the long term, with a life expectancy only of decades. Five feet of rainfall is the norm, and a warming climate is projected to result in every increasing rainfall; 4) Proximity to residential areas would exclude these sites from consideration if it were being sited as a new radioactive waste disposal facility; and, 5) The proposal to establish a landfill on a clean site and call it a “remedial action” is a misapplication of the CERCLA statute. This landfill couldn’t be built if it had to comply with the normal environmental regulations for landfills — even for ordinary municipal landfills.”

[Oak Ridger, 1/3/19] https://goo.gl/XyhpDz

Justin McCarthy

Communications Director, NEPA Campaign

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