Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 4 filed their comments on the Enbridge/East Tennessee Natural Gas Pipeline Ridgeline Expansion Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). They filed these “comments” after requesting an ominous two week extension “pending anticipated transitions in political leadership in Region 4.”
The proposed 122-mile pipeline would cross eight counties in order to supply fossil gas to the 1,450 MW Kingston fossil gas plant in Roane County.
SACE has significant concerns about the safety of this pipeline project, including the lack of safety regulations to address the increasing likelihood of landslides. We commented on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and then followed up with additional concerns stemming from comments made by the pipeline industry itself.
The EPA Region 4 had found significant deficiencies with the DEIS for the TVA Kingston fossil gas plant almost a year ago.
But the EPA’s final word on this dangerous pipeline project is: nothing.
In its 3-page comment letter, the EPA Region 4 asks for one minor change in the characterization of jurisdiction of air pollution regulations, and recommends that public communications be translated into Spanish. No mention of safety, environmental harms, or public health harms.
Contrast this to the EPA’s response to the environmental review of a different new gas pipeline to serve a different new TVA gas power plant: the Cumberland pipeline and plant in middle Tennessee. In August of 2023 the EPA filed comments on the FEIS of the Cumberland pipeline stating that “the EPA has identified deficiencies in the final analysis that remain and should be addressed in future EISs.” The 2023 comment letter goes on with specific recommendations on the characterization of greenhouse gas emissions, measures to mitigate carbon emissions, and even the potential for carbon lock-in.
So it appears that the lights are indeed out at US EPA Region 4.
The post The Lights Are Out at EPA Region 4 appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Remarkably, there are still Americans who buy into the concept promoted at left. Most people have figured out that:
The greed of corporations and billionaires has usurped our lawmaking processes and made it extremely difficult for the working class to live any decent kind of life.
Rule of law is a joke in the United States.
The final days of free market capitalism are upon us, leaving the common American more depressed and desperate than in any past age.
As the United States continues its slide into corporatocracy and oligarchy, the concept of universal healthcare becomes ever more unlikely.
As the midterms approach, we need to brace ourselves for the onslaught of messaging from the GOP to the effect that Trump is the only force separating America from communism. This, believe it or not, is a concept warmly embraced by tens of millions of hateful idiots.
The rest of the developed world deems healthcare to be a human right, like potable water. We counter: Bull****. Corporate profitability is the supreme right here.
Yes, the MAGA crowd has a huge appetite for the type of rhetoric we see at left, but their numbers are slowing shrinking.
That said, it’s still amazing that the U.S. is home to tens of millions of idiots who believe that liberals hate our country and are trying to destroy it.
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