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FERC

Rio Grande LNG’s Developer Led Ghostwriting Campaign

In March, a man named David Irizarry wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in support of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to be built in Brownsville, Texas. The Rio Grande LNG project (RGLNG), estimated to cost more than $11 billion, would be the largest private sector investment in Texas’ history. But it was awaiting a key decision from FERC. “As you know, the US appeals court of the DC circuit rejected all but two of the claims put forward by opponents of RGLNG related to RGLNG’s FERC order,” Irizarry wrote. Irizarry is not in the gas business, nor does he deal with energy policy.

The New Landscape For Fighting Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

For more than 20 years, Columbia Riverkeeper has fought dirty fossil fuel infrastructure — and won. Together with firefighters, fishers, foresters, farmers, health professionals, educators, union leaders, and tribes, we stopped more than a dozen proposed fossil fuel facilities, ranging from coal exports to LNG terminals.  Because of our success, the fossil fuel industry has begun trying to expand existing infrastructure rather than build new facilities. What’s the difference? Existing infrastructure typically has some of the required permits, and regulators generally approve capacity expansions even where they might reject a new project.

May 18: Stop Manchin’s FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)

Since March of last year, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has been working with Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee which he chairs to prevent any substantive change at FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They must stop their rubber stamping of methane gas pipelines and LNG projects! Here’s what Manchin has been and is doing, right now: -March 2022: He forced FERC commissioners to retract a new policy announced in February 2022 to require methane gas permit applications to include substantive environmental justice and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions analysis, and improved economic needs analysis.

Activists Disrupt ‘Joe Manchin’s’ FERC Meeting

Yesterday BXE rallied in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) office in D.C. - greeting staff and commissioners as they came for the monthly commissioners meeting! We then supported a #FrontlinesToFERC press conference- a group of Gulf Coast organizers who spoke on the numerous frontline LNG fights coming before FERC. As the FERC meeting began- 3BXEactivists disrupted the meeting and were hauled out chanting. Four more BXE members that were not allowed into the meeting (due to past disruptions) managed to get into the meeting anyway- yelling "STOP MANCHIN'S FERC" and deploying a banner. A security guard knocked people over, but we kept on yelling as we were kicked out of the building!

Anti-Mountain Valley Pipeline Protest

A small group of dedicated activists today rallied in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) headquarters calling for the commission not to issue a second extension certificate to the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) a $5.5 billion 303-mile-long interstate natural gas project. The 42-inch diameter pipeline is facing opposition from numerable groups with issues related to global warming, the route’s effect on endangered species, construction issues including continual erosion problems along its length along with complaints from landowners whose property the massive pipeline project is crossing. The commission is meeting today to consider granting the second extension request to MVP for completion of the final 20-mile segment of the project.

Thursday: Day Of Action Targeting The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Something new is happening this Thursday, February 18 at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  A person will be chairing a FERC Commissioners meeting who has written publicly that he appreciates why some consider FERC to be a rubber-stamp agency. Richard Glick has done more than this in his three-plus years as a FERC Commissioner. He has openly opposed and written strong dissents, primarily but not only on climate grounds, to majority decisions approving new gas pipelines, LNG terminals and compressor stations. Those dissents likely helped lead the DC Court of Appeals to strike down last year, FERC’s “Kafkaesque” (their words) decades-long abuse of...

Climate Justice Advocates Celebrate Important Victories But Big Oil And Gas Aren’t Giving In

Climate justice advocates are justifiably celebrating recent victories such as stopping three major pipelines, a new court decision regarding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and national discussion of the Green New Deal, but does this mean we are winning? We speak with Steve Horn, a climate reporter and investigative journalist, about the future of the Atlantic Coast, Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, what it means that oil companies are going bankrupt and a proposal to create a North American version of OPEC. Steve describes how fossil fuel companies are working to preserve their future and what we must do to save ours.

Climate Activists Sit In For Major Changes At Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC - On February 20, members of the climate justice group Beyond Extreme Energy held a sit-in inside the offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Seven activists disrupted FERC’s monthly commissioner's meeting, calling for FERC to be replaced with the ‘Federal Renewable Energy Commission’ (FREC). An additional five BXE members sat down blocking a staircase, before being forcibly removed. Members of the group sang and unfurled banners reading “FERC Permits Climate Crimes” and “FREC sustains communities and the earth.” They sat peacefully in the FERC headquarters until forcibly removed by building security. BXE member Jerome Wagner said the action was necessary because, “Under the Trump administration, FERC has become even more rogue, brazenly prioritizing fossil fuels over renewables and continuing to serve as a rubber stamp for natural gas infrastructure expansion.”

FERC Props Up Coal And Gas In Clime Crime Decision Subsidizing Them Against Clean Energy

Federal energy regulators issued an order Thursday that likely will tilt the market to favor coal and natural gas power plants in the nation's largest power grid region, stretching from New Jersey to Illinois. Critics say that it effectively creates a new subsidy to prop up uneconomical fossil fuel plants and that it will hurt renewable energy growth and, ultimately, consumers. The new rules, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are designed to counteract state subsidies that support the growth of renewable energy and use of nuclear power.

‘No More Fossil Lovers!’, BXE Disrupts Hearing For New FERC Commissioner

Washington, DC - Members of Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) spoke out at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing for James Danly, who was nominated by President Trump to be the third Republican commissioner at FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. BXE members unfurled a banner reading “Reject Danly” and yelled "FERC: No more fossil lovers! Wind and solar now!" before being arrested. The Danly nomination has been controversial because the Republican Danly was not paired with a Democrat nominee, as has been the norm at FERC for years. Danly is not qualified to be a FERC commissioner. Let us count the ways: He just graduated from law school in 2014. He had no regulatory experience when he was appointed by Pres. Trump in 2017 to be general counsel at FERC. 

Activists Pay Home Visit To FERC Commissioner

On Saturday July 13, climate justice activists from Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) held a protest outside Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner Cheryl LaFleur’s home in Wellesley Massachusetts. FERC is the independent government agency responsible for regulating any project that crosses state lines, including all major natural gas and oil pipelines. The activists from BXE dropped a banner that read, “You can’t be neutral on a burning planet” and demanded that LaFleur vote "no" on all new fossil fuel infrastructure at the next FERC meeting in Washington D.C.

Court: Climate Impacts Of Pipeline Projects Cannot Be Ignored

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a little-known agency that oversees energy infrastructure, receives far less attention when it comes to climate change than the Environmental Protection Agency. But a recent court ruling upheld that it must consider climate impacts in its decisions to approve certain natural gas infrastructure, hindering Trump administration efforts to speed construction on those projects with no regard to their impact on the climate. The ruling, issued Monday by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in Lori Birckhead et al v. FERC...

Activists Scale FERC Building, Demand Congress Replace It With FREC

Washington DC: Two activists scaled the precarious awning over the front door to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, early this morning.                        The action was taken by Beyond Extreme Energy on behalf of millions of affected citizens who are frustrated by years of FERC's approvals of pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, and alarmed by Donald Trump’s recent Executive Orders to further expedite pipeline approval.                 “The Federal Energy Regulation Commission, FERC, has for years been overseeing a major expansion of the destructive fracked gas industry,” said Ted Glick

Fossil Fuel Opponents ‘Welcome’ McNamee to FERC

On December 20, 2018, members of Beyond Extreme Energy and friends were at FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to “welcome” new commissioner Bernard McNamee to his first meeting. After a campaign against his Senate confirmation because of his close ties to – and adulation of – the fossil fuel industry, and his denigration of both clean energy and those advocating for it, he squeaked by in a 50-49 Senate vote along party lines – by far the most controversial nominee ever seated.

Protests Urge Sen. Schumer to Oppose Bernard McNamee As FERC Commissioner

Leaders representing hundreds of community, social justice, environmental and climate organizations have written an open letter to Democratic Party US Senate leader Chuck Schumer urging him to take two immediate actions: “Take steps to ensure that President Trump’s latest nominee to become a FERC commissioner, Bernard McNamee, is not approved by the Senate without a full debate on the floor of the Senate;” and, “Do not appoint Joe Manchin to be the ranking member for the Democrats on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.”
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