LETTER: DeRemer’s support of fracking project is misguided

Published 10:01 am Thursday, October 24, 2024

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s fanciful and highly controversial argument on behalf of the GTN XPress gas pipeline project was predicted on two flimsy assumptions: The first was that industrial users needed and would buy fracked gas to power their projects; the second that the pipeline’s owners had lined up sufficient financing to complete the costly infrastructure expansion. Both assumptions are now revealed as being dubious at best.

Amazon, a leader among industrial purchasers, recently canceled its application to use fracked gas from GTN to power its data centers in Morrow County. That development alone may encourage other businesses to take comparable steps. Further, the pipeline’s parent company (TC Energy) has now acknowledged in a federal court filing that the project is not financially viable without cost-sharing from utilities that stand to derive no benefit at all from the project — a proposition that has not escaped the attention of potentially affected utilities such as Puget Sound Energy which has filed its objection.

Columbia Riverkeeper, the environmental advocacy group, has filed a petition with the federal regulatory agency to put a hold on the GTN permit because of the self-described financial uncertainties.

DeRemer’s advocacy for the GTN project was always misguided from an environmental perspective. The problem is now compounded by a serious lack of financial due-diligence on the part of DeRemer and fellow proponents in the Conservative Climate Caucus.

Larry Kirsch

Northwest Portland