Agency amends emissions analysis
Greenhouse gas emissions from Florida Power & Light’s and Duke Energy Florida’s natural gas plants served by a new pipeline will not significantly impact the environment, a federal agency said Wednesday.
The $4 billion natural gas pipeline that has brought protests and legal challenges from environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and landowners along its route over the last few years began operating in June.
Juno Beach-based FPL, which uses natural gas to generate 70 percent of its power, is the pipeline’s primary customer. FPL officials have stated that the additional pipeline capacity was needed, as the state’s other two pipelines are near capacity.
The pipeline is part of a much larger enterprise, the Florida Southeast Market Pipelines Project. It includes the 515-mile $3.2 billion Sabal Trail Pipeline from Alabama to Central Florida, the $550 million 126-mile Florida Southeast Connection pipeline from Central Florida to FPL’s Indiantown plant and Transcontinental’s $459 million 48-mile Hillabee Expansion project in Alabama, as well as six new compressor stations.
On Aug. 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to conduct a new environmental review of the pipeline and vacated the pipeline’s certificate of approval.
The court found that FERC had failed to fully examine the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from FPL’s Martin County plant in Indiantown, its future Okeechobee County plant and Duke’s Citrus County plant under construction in Crystal River before approving the pipeline project.
On Wednesday, FERC issued a supplemental environmental impact statement finding that as long as required mitigation measures are in place the three plants’ emissions will not be harmful. The plants will increase the permitted emissions by 8.36 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, FERC said.
FPL spokesman Dave McDermitt said Wednesday, “We commend FERC for its expanded, comprehensive environmental analysis in response to the court’s decision and look forward to the completion of the regulatory and legal proceedings involving this vitally needed natural gas pipeline.”
The Sierra Club, which along with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Flint Riverkeeper filed suit last year challenging FERC’s approval of the pipeline, questioned Wednesday how FERC could determine the plants’ impact in just a few weeks.
Sierra Club managing attorney Eric Huber said Wednesday, “To us this looks like a rush job to avoid having to stop the flow of gas, but we don’t think it complies with the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.”
Huber said Sierra Club’s experts are analyzing FERC’s supplemental environmental impact statement.
“Initially, it looks like there are some issues there. They limited their analysis to five years, although the plants operate for decades,” Huber said. “Another issue is they compare the new greenhouse gas emissions to what would have happened with coal. It should be compared to wind and solar. They don’t take into account how this is displacing wind and solar from the market.”
The Sierra Club has also filed a challenge to Florida Southeast Connection’s request for fast-track authorization to extend the pipeline to FPL’s Okeechobee plant.