A Bridge to Nowhere? : Our Energy Transition and the Natural Gas Pipeline Wars

[enter Abstract BodyThis article canvases the debate surrounding the nation’s increasing reliance on natural gas and the attendant push toward new natural gas pipeline infrastructure. Natural gas is fast becoming the next principal sector our economy must address to arrest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in our energy systems. And during the past few years, states, landowners, and environmental organizations have waged what is now being dubbed a “pipeline war.” A “Bridge to Nowhere” portrays this war. It discusses the history of federal natural gas regulation, along with methane’s contribution toward climate change and the Obama and Trump administrations’ opposite responses. It then explores the dominant conversations surrounding new pipeline construction, including whether states enjoy sufficient authority to block new pipeline construction under the Clean Water Act, whether the Federal Energy Regulatory (FERC) impermissibly avoids examining the impact of GHG emissions associated with new pipeline approvals, and finally whether the process that allows new pipeline construction to proceed expeditiously is so “Kafkaesque,” as an August 2019 judged observed, to warrant changes to protect landowners and the environment. Each of these contemporary issues is capturing considerable public attention and increasing judicial interest. The article next probes the often ignored yet fundamental question of whether FERC ought to consider examining the need for new natural gas in the first place before deciding whether to approve new pipeline construction. The article concludes by explaining why FERC can and must do so, and offers a framework and justification for the agency to engage meaningfully in a modern energy policy conversation