"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission assessed a natural gas pipeline project's contribution to climate change for the first time ever yesterday, advancing a key priority of Chairman Richard Glick.
FERC weighed downstream greenhouse gas emissions related to a project operated by Northern Natural Gas Co., which had requested approval of a pipeline replacement running 87 miles between South Sioux City, Neb., and Sioux Falls, S.D. The agency ultimately approved the project after the landmark assessment of its greenhouse gas emissions.
'Today's order reverses the commission's unlawful course and allows us to honestly say we actually considered a proposed project's potential impact on the environment,' Glick (D) said during the agency's monthly meeting.
'The order also demonstrates what I have been saying for some time now,' Glick said. 'Analyzing the impacts of the project's greenhouse gas emissions doesn't automatically doom the project.'"