EMO Oregon Interfaith Power & Light 2023

Join us in speaking up as people of faith who care about the gift of this planet, our common home. Speak up for climate and environmental justice in Oregon during the 2023 legislative session.

Join us in speaking up as people of faith who care about the gift of this planet, our common home. Speak up for climate and environmental justice in Oregon during the 2023 legislative session.

Stop GTN Xpress pipeline expansion, say Oregon faith communities

The GTN pipeline runs across northern Idaho, north to south across Washington and Oregon, and on into California. It is a fracked gas methane (natural gas) pipeline. TC Energy, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, wants to expand the capacity of the pipeline, adding an additional 150 million cubic feet of gas per day, while also adding a new gas compressor station in Morrow County, OR. This proposed expansion project is called GTN Xpress.

Gov Kotek, Sens Merkley and Wyden, Oregon's attorney general, and elected leaders in Washington and California have spoken out against this unnecessary and greenhouse gas-emitting project.

The GTN Xpress pipeline expansion project was set to be on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agenda in July 2023 but was removed, presumably because members of FERC are not in agreement about approving the required permits.

We are calling on Oregon's US Representatives to make individual or collective statements against this project, helping our state meet its emission reduction targets.

As people of faith in Oregon, it's important we speak up about this. The pipeline would create 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses emissions per year. This is the equivalent pollution of adding 754,000 passenger vehicles a year on the road each year until 2052. Methane (natural gas) is a much more potent greenhous gas than carbon dioxide in the first two decades, so this is a climate change issue. This is also an environmental justice issue: natural gas pipelines leak all throughout the production, transport, and consumer process, causing public health concerns for everyone who lives near the pipeline, including respiratory diseases and asthma.

Because we care about our neighbors and our common home, we do not want to see expanded capacity in this pipeline: that is going the opposite direction of our state's climate commitments and our ability to pass on a healthy planet to current and future generations.

For these reasons, we are calling on Oregon's congressional delegation to make a statement opposing this expansion. The project will probably be on a future FERC agenda to accept or deny permits to expand capacity.

Find your local rep

Subject:

Thank you for your work in Congress on the part of all Oregonians. I am writing to express my opposition to TC Energy’s GTN Xpress pipeline expansion project currently seeking permits in review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This project was on FERC's agenda in July 2023 but was removed due to opposition by elected leaders and an outpouring of public comments, as well as an explosion of another of TC Energy's pipelines in Virginia two days before the FERC meeting.

On June 14, 2023, Gov. Kotek released a statement urging FERC to reject the GTN Pipeline expansion, and Gov. Inslee made a similar statement on March 10, 2023. Senators Merkley and Wyden also opposed this project in December 2022, and made another statement on July 25, 2023 asking FERC to deny the permits.

I am asking you to also publicly oppose the GTN Xpress proposal and tell FERC that this project is at odds with Oregon and our global community reaching necessary climate goals.

As a person of faith in Oregon, it is important to me that we care for the earth, our common home, and that we make sure all our neighbors have access to healthy air, water, and soil. Expanding this pipeline will cause an extra 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, the equivalent of 754,000 passenger vehicles a year on the road. Methane (natural gas) has 80% more global warming potential than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years (UNEP), and it is this decade that we really need to REDUCE emissions in order to keep from crossing the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold of warming. Additionally, pipelines leak, causing public health concerns including respiratory disease, asthma, and other health problems for those living and working near the pipeline and compressor stations (let alone in homes and businesses), making this an environmental justice concern.

Oregonians have come together for decades to oppose and defeat new fracked gas pipelines and become the first state in the country to ban new gas power plants. This project is simply a new approach to support the same harmful interests of fossil fuel companies. Our communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change with record wildfires, droughts, extreme weather events, and flooding. This project would increase the emissions contributing to these conditions.

Pipeline and compressor station expansions also create increased health risk for communities living along the pipeline routes and near compressor stations, which are often rural, low-income, and communities of color. Not only is this infrastructure prone to accidents like leaks, fires, and explosions, but communities near the compressor stations would experience increased exposure to cancer-causing pollutants if GTN Xpress is permitted by FERC.

Communities in Oregon fought hard to pass climate commitments at the state level, but the goal of reducing emissions in the state by 80% would face a considerable setback if GTN Xpress is passed. Last August, the State Attorney General’s office, along with AGs' offices in Washington and California, told FERC they oppose GTN Xpress and that it’s out of line with state and federal climate goals.

I am asking you to stand with Oregonians in opposition to the fossil fuel project and support a safer future for our communities. Please publicly oppose GTN Xpress and urge FERC to deny permits for the expansion.

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