• Energy

How a Pro-Coal Republican Policymaker Became a Clean Energy Champion

• #PoliticalClimate
• carbon pricing
• climate change
• FERC
• natural gas

When President Trump appointed Neil Chatterjee to the Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2017, the environmental community was worried. As a former energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, onlookers expected a pro-coal agenda to define Chatterjee’s term as a regulator.  Despite maintaining sympathy for coal communities struggling through the energy transition, Chatterjee says he’s “very bullish on the growth of renewable energy.”  Chatterjee told the Political Climate podcast in a recent interview.

• Energy

US Exported Natural Gas Could Worsen Climate Change

• FERC
• flaring
• fracking
• LNG
• LNG exports
• methane
• natural gas
• PCB

While natural gas has been touted as a solution to the world’s fossil fuel problem, new analysis by NRDC shows that the U.S’ exporting of liquified natural gas (LNG) will only worsen global warming. When looking at the full life cycle emissions of different energy sources, U.S. LNG led to higher emissions than regional sources of LNG, pipeline gas, solar or wind power, and led only to slightly lower emissions than the use of coal. 

Why this Matters:  It seems increasingly clear that new natural gas infrastructure is controversial. Cities are taking action to ban natural gas from new buildings, and chefs are advertising the utility of electric stoves, but more must be done.

• Land

New Investigation Shows Pipelines Always Get Their Way With FERC

• #conservationist
• 5th Amendment rights
• Atlantic Coast Pipeline
• FERC
• oil and gas
• pipeline
• Private Property Rights
• Takings

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sides with pipeline companies over private landowners in 99% of the cases when landowners refuse to grant a company permission to bury a pipeline on their land.  

Why This Matters:  The FERC’s stilted process may soon end. In addition to Congressional oversight, a federal appeals court is considering whether to disallow FERC from blocking landowners taking their cases to court right away, before ground is broken.

• Energy

FERC Reaches “Compromise” and Approves New LNG Export Terminal

• CO2
• FERC
• fracking
• GHGs
• LNG
• methane
• storms

For the first time in two years, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late last week approved a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project — the Calcasieu Pass in Cameron Parish, Louisiana — after the Commission’s two Republican commissioners and one of the two Democratic commissioners agreed to use a new approach for consideration of direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from LNG facilities. 

• Politics

Pipeline and LNG Terminal Project Puts Oregon Governor On the Spot

• climate change
• Colorado
• FERC
• fracking
• Governor Kate Brown
• LNG
• Oregon
• pipeline
• President Trump
• wetlands

In Oregon, there is a fossil fuel infrastructure project undergoing permitting and approval that is stirring up controversy, putting the newly re-elected Governor of the state, Kate Brown, on the spot over her campaign promise to tackle the issue of climate change.  The Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and its Pacific Connector Gas pipeline would transport fracked natural gas from Colorado all the way to Oregon’s coast, where it would be super-cooled into liquid form and loaded on ships in the terminal bound for international markets.  A huge crowd of protesters attended a state hearing on the project expressed grave concerns about the large quantities of soil that would need to be displaced in order to install the proposed three-foot wide pipeline, spanning 229 miles, 78 wetlands, and 485 waterways across the state through four Oregon Counties.