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January 23rd, 2018 
Awake Goy Pipeline/Fracking Opponents Post Demands On Walls Of FERC
Above Photo: From dcindymedia.org
Note: The Eight Demands of FERC Activists, developed by over 200 community-supported organizations representing impacted communities in states across the nation, were:
Time for a Pipeline Review Process Where People and Our Environment Really Matter
- To ensure that FERC identifies a full spectrum of truly meaningful fixes to its pipeline review and approval process, FERC’s Commissioners need to hear directly from the communities impacted by pipeline infrastructure. FERC should begin the 1999 Policy Statement review process with no less than six public hearings held in affected communities across the nation that are dedicated to the impacted public testifying directly to the FERC Commissioners about their experiences with the pipeline review and approval process.
- FERC must mandate a genuine demonstration of an end-use need for a project that is objectively verified by experts and that cannot be fulfilled by renewable energy options.
- FERC must respect state and local authority and expertise by deferring to state and local environmental authorities’ findings regarding the environmental, community, and economic impacts of pipelines.
- FERC must respect the authority of other state and federal agencies by instituting a policy that prevents FERC from approving pipeline infrastructure and/or allowing any element of construction to proceed until all state and federal reviews/permit processes have been finalized and approvals/permits granted.
- FERC must end the use of tolling orders, which place people in legal limbo and prevent communities from accessing justice before a pipeline company exercises the power of eminent domain to take property rights and inflicts irreparable harm through significant stages of construction. If tolling orders are not prohibited, then other mechanisms for addressing the problem include
- * Prohibit pipeline projects from advancing in any way, shape, or form, including eminent domain and/or construction, if there is an outstanding rehearing request/tolling order; or
- * Mandate FERC response to rehearing requests within 30 days and prohibit projects from advancing in any way, shape, or form during that period.
- FERC must commit to removing bias from the process by no longer hiring consultants with demonstrated conflicts of interest (i.e., those who are representing a pipeline company seeking Commission approval), and by prohibiting Commission staff or Commissioners from working on/deciding upon any pipeline infrastructure project in which they have a direct or indirect financial stake or have worked to represent the company within the previous 5 years.
- FERC must end the practice of using segmentation to skew environmental and community impact reviews.
- FERC must commit to a complete analysis of the costs and benefits of proposed pipelines, with a full and fair implementation of NEPA, including, but not limited to, fully evaluating social justice impacts; climate change impacts of pipeline construction and operation; community, environment, and climate change impacts of increased natural gas exploration, fracking, and methane emissions resulting from pipeline infrastructure operations; economic analyses that include costs, not just asserted benefits; alternatives not limited to alternate routes but that also include alternative energy sources; and robust health-and-safety impact analyses.
On the 18th of January, Beyond Extreme Energy and others fighting against fracked gas pipelines, fracking, and eminent domain posted their demands on the walls of FERC shortly before the agency’s monthly meeting.
As fast as activists were putting up fliers demanding that FERC comply with other Federal agencies and laws, security guards ripped them down.
FERC or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the agency responsible for approving fracked gas pipelines and approving them for the use of eminent domain. FERC is also the prototype for Trump’s pattern of putting industry kingpins in charge of the agencies that regulate their own agencies. FERC is paid for by the very companies it regulates, and FERC commissioners usually have prior experience as executives of pipeline and utility companies. FERC has been called a rubber stamp as they have only disapproved one fracked gas pipeline and one LNG terminal in recent times. They have been called out as a revolving door, and even as the “FERCus” as their process (and their meetings) have become such a circus.
Source Article from https://popularresistance.org/pipeline-fracking-opponents-post-demands-on-walls-of-ferc/
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