The nation's top energy regulator authorized a major energy developer to move forward with a natural gas expansion project in the Pacific Northwest. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a certificate Thursday for the so-called Gas Transmission Northwest XPress Project , which will upgrade three existing compressor stations and increase capacity on an existing system that has transported natural gas for decades.
developer TC Energy, GOP lawmakers in Oregon, Idaho and Washington, and labor unions have all called on FERC to issue the certificate. 'The GTN XPress project will play a critical role in keeping energy affordable and reliable for consumers in California and the Pacific Northwest,' TC Energy spokesperson Michael Tadeo told Fox News Digital. 'We appreciate FERC’s bipartisan action today to approve the project and will work diligently to place it into service as soon as possible.
The project, which mainly consists of software and other upgrades to TC Energy's existing infrastructure, comes as demand for natural gas transportation on the GTN pipeline system has increased 26% in recent years while nearby natural gas production has dwindled. The pipeline feeds key gas supplies to utility companies which, in turn, provide energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
The Commission's continued inaction has almost certainly exposed GTN's customers, who serve residential and commercial natural gas and electricity users, to more expensive supply sources to meet their load demands this winter,' Stanley Chapman III, TC Energy's executive vice president and chief operating officer of natural gas pipelines division, wrote in a letter to FERC commissioners after the September meeting.