Trump officials examining states' authority in pipeline delays
WASHINGTON - After years of pipeline projects getting held up or derailed by environmental concerns, the Trump administration is examining ways to get around state roadblocks that have made it increasingly difficult to build in certain parts of the United States.
In late October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission startled many state officials when it granted a construction permit for a natural gas pipeline in New York, despite state regulators turning down the developer over concerns the project would increase greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has for months discussed the possibility of using federal authority to speed infrastructure development, a potential political third rail for Republicans who have long proclaimed the sanctity of states' rights.
"This is an administration that's going to carry out its agenda by all means necessary," said Devashree Saha, director of energy and environmental policy at The Council of State Governments, a non-partisan advocate for state governments. "The New York example is the first we're seeing, but it could be a harbinger of things to come."
FERC's action comes as the oil and gas industry increases pressure on the administration and lawmakers to intervene against an increasingly visible "Keep it in the Ground" movement that is leading campaigns across the country to stop pipelines, drilling and other activities that support production and consumption of fossil fuels, the primary cause of global warming. Political leaders in a handful of northeast states, most visibly New York, are beginning to listen, in some cases factoring climate change into regulatory decisions.
"We have to break that log jam, to stop one state from having virtual veto power," Dena Wiggins, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association, told Energy Department officials at industry event last month. "If other states start to have a more expansive view of their [environmental authority] it could be a problem."
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I'm thinking of Reagan's presidential run back in 1980. He began his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi - the place where those civil rights workers were murdered. Jimmy Carter said Reagan was communicating that he supported states rights. Reagan won all the southern states but Georgia - which Carter had won in 1976. And it's been downhill ever since. 