What is Undermining Biden’s Climate Justice Promises?

A methane gas pipeline in Virginia caught fire and exploded in July. Two days later, Willie Phillips, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), said that he was ready to approve yet another major methane pipeline expansion by the same company. 

Phillips’ statement and FERC’s leadership seem indifferent to the climate crisis, our urgent need for a just transition away from fossil fuels and public safety concerns related to fossil fuel projects.

Since President Biden tapped Phillips to preside over FERC, it has approved a glut of fossil fuel projects, including methane and oil pipelines throughout the country and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, these actions are at odds with Biden’s promises to confront climate change and deliver environmental justice.  

Among several major fossil fuel proposals currently before FERC, TC Energy — whose pipeline exploded in July —has proposed the GTN Xpress project, which would increase compression in an aging methane pipeline in order to push large quantities of fracked methane gas from Canada into the Pacific Northwest and California. The GTN Xpress project — which the FERC chairman publicly supports— is expected to emit the equivalent of 3.47 million tons of CO2 every year for at least the next 30 years. This is like adding 754,000 cars to the road each year until 2052. As the effects of climate change intensify, FERC approving new polluting projects is out of touch with the reality of the climate crisis.   

By contrast, Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act could jumpstart an equitable transition to an energy future. If fully implemented, the Inflation Reduction Act’s massive investments in clean energy provide a legitimate chance for the U.S. to meet our climate goals and do our part to secure a safe and livable future for coming generations. But FERC’s insistence on greenlighting projects with huge carbon footprints is diluting the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate benefits. Trying to reduce atmospheric carbon while permitting new sources of methane and CO2 pollution is like trying to drain a clogged sink without turning off the faucet. It won’t work.

FERC’s willingness to rubber stamp methane pipelines and LNG terminals under Phillip’s leadership is undermining Biden’s progress on climate.

FERC is also undermining the Biden administration's stated commitments to environmental justice. Some of the nation’s leading environmental groups recently observed that FERC has a “very long way to go before it can claim to be adequately addressing environmental justice and equity in its decision-making on gas projects.” For instance, recent FERC decisions approving the Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG Brownsville projects could harm and pollute overburdened nearby communities. And Washington state’s attorney general opposed the GTN Xpress project in part because “when we expand gas infrastructure, it’s all too often minority, low-income, and Indigenous communities that pay the price.” Nevertheless, FERC seems eager to help keep the methane flowing near rural and tribal communities. Phillips’ full-speed-ahead mentality, despite objections from tribes and local communities, is incompatible with the Biden administration’s public posturing about environmental justice. 

FERC isn’t just undercutting the Biden administration’s climate goals, it is also upending important state-level efforts to curb fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) recently asked FERC to deny GTN Xpress because the proposal cannot comply with Oregon’s climate rules. Washington opposes the same project because it “undermines Washington state’s efforts to fight climate change.” And a coalition of eight states are currently arguing that FERC illegally failed to consider state clean energy and climate laws when approving a methane gas pipeline expansion in the Northeast. In the absence of a comprehensive national plan to decarbonize the U.S. economy, state and regional efforts to confront climate change are extremely important. Ignoring these policies is further evidence that FERC’s leadership is fundamentally out of touch with the severity of the climate crisis and our immediate need to reduce carbon emissions.

Now is the time for FERC — our country’s most powerful energy regulator — to stop ignoring the climate crisis and the outsized impact that climate chaos and fossil fuel development have on vulnerable communities. This should begin immediately with the denial of the GTN XPress project and similar unnecessary proposals before FERC. If Phillips cannot or will not do this, Biden should appoint a new FERC chair who can support the administration’s vitally important climate and environmental justice work.  

Miles Johnson is the legal director for Columbia Riverkeeper.