In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) threw a little cold water on two important pipeline upgrades to carry more Marcellus/Utica gas to southern markets. A final environmental impact statement (EIS) was due from FERC for both the Mountaineer XPress and Gulf XPress projects no later than April 28, 2017. FERC said that the deadline would slip by three months due to reroutes and additional environment information requested (see FERC Delays EIS for Mountaineer XPress & Gulf XPress Pipelines). MDN previously reported on Mountaineer XPress, which includes 165 miles of new pipeline with approximately 2.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of transportation capacity from existing and future points of receipt along or near the Columbia pipeline system–most of it located in West Virginia (see Details on Columbia Pipeline Mountaineer XPress Pipeline Project). Gulf XPress consists of constructing seven new midpoint compressor stations along the existing Columbia pipeline system in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, with the aim of moving an additional 875 million cubic feet (MMcf) of Marcellus/Utica gas per day southward, to the Gulf Coast region. However, before FERC issues a final EIS for both projects, they must first issue a draft EIS (or DEIS)–which they did yesterday. The good news is that it was a favorable DEIS, signaling a favorable EIS will be issued by the end of April. The further good news is that FERC has scheduled five public hearings (four in WV and one in TN) for late March. We have FERC’s DEIS announcement below, along with a copy of the full DEIS (all 532 pages!)…
