Commissioner Cheryl A. LaFleur Statement
November 16, 2018
Docket No. CP18-26-000
Item No. C-1
Concurrence on Texas Eastern Transmission, LP, Lambertville East Expansion Project
Today’s order authorizes Texas Eastern Transmission, LP’s (Texas Eastern) to replace two existing compressor units at its Lambertville Compressor Station in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.1
The proposed Lambertville East Expansion Project will provide 60,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of incremental service from interconnections in Lambertville, New Jersey, and Marietta, Pennsylvania, to existing city gates in New Jersey. I am concurring because I believe the project is in the public interest after carefully balancing the need for the project and its environmental impacts.
In this case, Texas Eastern states that the gas will be purchased by two local utilities, PSEG Power LLC and Pivotal Utility Holdings, Inc. d/b/a Elizabethtown Gas, to serve their industrial, commercial and residential customers.2
While a specific breakdown of end uses is not known, it is reasonably foreseeable that the gas being transported will be burned and downstream greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will result from burning that gas. 3
The Project’s Environmental Assessment (EA) quantified the direct GHG emissions from the construction and operation of the compressor stations,4
but the EA did not consider the downstream emissions impacts.5
To address my concerns about the failure to consider downstream emissions impacts in this proceeding, I have myself considered the downstream GHG emissions as part of my public interest determination. Using a methodology developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to estimate the downstream GHG emissions from the project, and assuming as an upper-bound estimate that all of the gas to be transported is eventually combusted, 60,000 Dth/d of natural gas service would result in the emission of approximately 1.16 million metric tpy of CO2e. The 1.16 million tons of GHG emissions from downstream use would result in a 1 percent increase in GHG emissions from fossil fuel combustion in New Jersey6
and 0.02 percent increase nationally.7
After balancing the economic need for the Lambertville East Expansion Project and its environmental impacts, I find this project to be in the public interest. As I explained in my concurrence in Broad Run,8
despite my ongoing disagreement with the Commission’s approach to its environmental review of proposed pipeline projects, in particular its failure to consider GHG emissions from downstream consumption, I recognize that a project under review may be needed to serve customers and be in the public interest. Therefore, I am trying to move beyond our disagreements on the Commission’s approach, however important they may be, and base my determination on the facts in the record—even ones not disscussed in our environmental documents or in the certificate order. I share many of the concerns voiced by Commissioner Glick in his dissent, and look forward to discussing these important issues—including how we consider climate change—as part of our Notice of Inquiry on the Certificate Policy Statement.9
For all of these reasons, I concur.
- 11 Texas Eastern Transmission, LP, 165 FERC ¶ 61,132 (2018).
- 22 Texas Eastern July 18, 2018 Response to Commission Staff’s July 16, 2018 Data Request at 1.
- 33 See Mid States Coalition for Progress v. Surface Transportation Board, 345 F.3d 520, 549 (8th Cir. 2003) (Mid States). In Mid States, the Court concluded that the Surface Transportation Board erred by failing to consider the downstream impacts of the burning of transported coal. Even though the record lacked specificity regarding the extent to which the transported coal would be burned, the Court concluded the nature of the impact was clear.
- 44 EA at 46 and Tables 8-9.
- 55 This decision is consistent with the Commission’s policy, with which I disagree, announced in New Market limiting the disclosure and consideration of downstream and upstream GHG emissions impacts in our project review. See Dominion Transmission Inc., 163 FERC ¶ 61,128 (2018) (LaFleur, Comm’r, dissenting in part).
- 66 U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2018 https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state/
- 77 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2016, (April 2018).
- 88 Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, 163 FERC ¶ 61,190 (2018) (LaFleur, Comm’r, concurring).
- 99 Certification of New Interstate Natural Gas Facilities, Notice of Inquiry, Certification of New Interstate Natural Gas Facilities, Notice of Inquiry, 163 FERC ¶ 61,042 (2018).