PHMSA rules must be rewritten to stop systemic racism

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

Link to Fall 2020 League Line: https://bredl.org/theleagueline/Fall2020.pdf

Index to this and other issues: http://bredl.org/theleagueline/index.htm

By Sharon Ponton

 

Since the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s demise, there has been much talk about reforming Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and its approval process regarding natural gas and oil pipelines. I agree that FERC needs reform, especially in its dealings with landowners. It is also imperative that the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) pipeline construction rules be rewritten.

In 2015, when I first began working for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, I researched and wrote a fact sheet about PHMSA rules entitled, “Unequal Protection.” I focused on the class designations PHMSA has created which I believe incentivize pipeline developers to build in rural communities, specifically in communities of color, low wealth and/or indigenous communities. FERC does not oversee or permit construction rules, that’s PHMSA’s job. FERC does, however, approve pipeline routes which are chosen by developers based on PHMSA’s class designations.

Environmental justice is a part of FERC’s approval process, but we have experienced firsthand its willingness to ignore the facts on the ground even when evidence is presented during the permitting process. This was clearly the case along the route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. FERC’s environmental impact documents indicated that 58% of the census blocks through which the ACP would have been built could have been environmental justice communities. But the Environmental Impact Statement for the ACP concluded there was no disproportionate impact on those environmental justice communities. Those of us living and working in the communities affected knew those statements to be false. We knew about the community settled by freed slaves during reconstruct-ion, Union Hill, where ACP planned to build a compressor station. We knew Northampton County, North Carolina where another compressor station was to be built, is a majority minority community. We also knew that the Lumbee tribe would be disproportionately impacted if the ACP were ever built. However, state regulators, Dominion and FERC ignored the evidence presented when approving permits until the courts ruled to vacate the Union Hill air permit based on environmental justice.

The class designations instituted by PHMSA in its construction rules create a situation where building on rural land is much more economical for developers. Not only is the land itself cheaper, developers can use thinner walled pipe, install fewer shut off valves, use manual instead of automatic shut off valves, bury pipe shallower in the ground, and conduct fewer inspections after the pipeline is in service, to name just a few of the rules which point developers to rural communities.

Historically, low wealth and/or people of color have borne the brunt of pollution from toxic industrial projects being built in or adjacent to their communities. I believe the PHMSA pipeline construction rules are an example of the systemic racism we find written into our regulation and laws today. I totally agree FERC needs major reform including its approval of pipeline routes, but we must also reform PHMSA’s construction rules. Marginalized communities must not continue to face the disproportionate health and safety risks forced on them in the past.

#pipelines #FERC # environmentaljustice 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fact sheet available on our website at www.bredl.org

http://www.bredl.org/pdf5/Unequal_Protection_Fact_Sheet.pdf