NEXUS Pipeline protestors still active
Groups hoping to slow appointments to FERC
Sharon Township resident Kathie Jones speaks out at an Environmental Protection Agency program on air quality as part of the local efforts to stop construction of the proposed NEXUS Pipeline. Photo by GLENN WOJCIAK
MEDINA – While the application to build the NEXUS Pipeline is on hold at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, opponents of the project continue their efforts to stop its construction across Northern Ohio and Michigan.
NEXUS Transmission officials had hoped to receive final authorization to construct the pipeline in January, but that timetable was disrupted by the resignation of FERC President Norman Bay, which left the agency with only two active commissioners on its five-member board. That’s one short of the quorum needed to issue the certificates to proceed on big projects like the $2 billion NEXUS Pipeline.
Now, more than 100 environmental groups are launching a campaign to shut down major decision making at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by opposing any new nominations to the agency.
The coalition includes Green America, Delaware Riverkeeper, Food and Water Watch, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and other national and regional groups, as well as numerous state and local groups that campaign around air, water and pipeline issues, according to a press release.
That group includes Sustainable Medina County, which has organized a series of protests against the NEXUS Pipeline and has tried unsuccessfully to place a county charter issue on the Medina County ballot in hopes of establishing new home rule authority to challenge the pipeline.
Sustainable Medina spokeswoman Kathie Jones said, “We’re not in a rush to have any new (FERC) nominees concerned. We support the general effort to delay the appointment of new commissioners. We all want to have some input into the process.”
Meanwhile, other pipeline opponents are still filing comments with FERC, which they hope will convince the federal agency to reject the application to build NEXUS. Their hopes got a lift when FERC left NEXUS off a list of applications it rushed to approve before Bay stepped down.
One of those projects that did get approval was the Rover Pipeline, which is similar to the NEXUS Pipeline in location, size and scope. Rover meets some important standards that NEXUS has not according to comments filed with FERC by Frank Zaski, a member of the Sierra Club and the Michigan Climate Action Commission.
Zaski states in a series of posts on the FERC website that Rover meets the demands for natural gas in Michigan and Canada and therefore the NEXUS Pipeline is not needed. The evidence for his conclusion includes his claims that Rover has purchased agreements for 95 percent of the gas it will transmit while NEXUS has agreements for only 59 percent of its capacity.
Zaski also contends that most of the purchase agreements NEXUS has are with affiliate companies and no other gas producers have requested approval of the NEXUS project. To the contrary, Zaski says ANR Pipeline Co. is protesting NEXUS and its developers who failed to adequately consider Rover and existing less-costly alternatives when making its case for approval.
NEXUS Transmission officials had hoped to receive final authorization to construct the pipeline in January, but that timetable was disrupted by the resignation of FERC President Norman Bay, which left the agency with only two active commissioners on its five-member board. That’s one short of the quorum needed to issue the certificates to proceed on big projects like the $2 billion NEXUS Pipeline.
Now, more than 100 environmental groups are launching a campaign to shut down major decision making at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by opposing any new nominations to the agency.
The coalition includes Green America, Delaware Riverkeeper, Food and Water Watch, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and other national and regional groups, as well as numerous state and local groups that campaign around air, water and pipeline issues, according to a press release.
That group includes Sustainable Medina County, which has organized a series of protests against the NEXUS Pipeline and has tried unsuccessfully to place a county charter issue on the Medina County ballot in hopes of establishing new home rule authority to challenge the pipeline.
Sustainable Medina spokeswoman Kathie Jones said, “We’re not in a rush to have any new (FERC) nominees concerned. We support the general effort to delay the appointment of new commissioners. We all want to have some input into the process.”
Meanwhile, other pipeline opponents are still filing comments with FERC, which they hope will convince the federal agency to reject the application to build NEXUS. Their hopes got a lift when FERC left NEXUS off a list of applications it rushed to approve before Bay stepped down.
One of those projects that did get approval was the Rover Pipeline, which is similar to the NEXUS Pipeline in location, size and scope. Rover meets some important standards that NEXUS has not according to comments filed with FERC by Frank Zaski, a member of the Sierra Club and the Michigan Climate Action Commission.
Zaski states in a series of posts on the FERC website that Rover meets the demands for natural gas in Michigan and Canada and therefore the NEXUS Pipeline is not needed. The evidence for his conclusion includes his claims that Rover has purchased agreements for 95 percent of the gas it will transmit while NEXUS has agreements for only 59 percent of its capacity.
Zaski also contends that most of the purchase agreements NEXUS has are with affiliate companies and no other gas producers have requested approval of the NEXUS project. To the contrary, Zaski says ANR Pipeline Co. is protesting NEXUS and its developers who failed to adequately consider Rover and existing less-costly alternatives when making its case for approval.