FERC Grants Permanent Certificate to Spire STL Pipeline without Hearing from Landowners, Ratepayers

“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today improperly granted Spire STL Pipeline a permanent certificate based solely on claims made by the pipeline owner and its affiliate. Landowners, ratepayers, and other stakeholders with important perspectives on, and experiences with, the project were shut out from commenting or offering evidence about Spire’s most recent claims despite requests to do so. FERC had appropriately granted Spire STL Pipeline a temporary certificate to ensure reliable gas service to customers while it reevaluated the need for the pipeline, and it should have taken that opportunity to create a thorough public process for review of the need for the pipeline, impacts on landowners and ratepayers, and the role of self-dealing in the pipeline’s development. Instead, in spite of the Chair and Commissioners’ recognition of the major failures in their initial approval, and in spite of a unanimous D.C. Circuit ruling vacating Spire STL Pipeline’s certificate because of those failings, FERC has again failed to fulfill its obligation.

“This Spire STL pipeline will impact peoples’ lives for generations to come. Families and businesses are carefully watching every dollar. They deserve a thorough review with meaningful consideration of all input into the reasonableness of the costs of this project in light of Spire’s self-dealing and the real-world impacts of the pipeline. As multiple Commissioners acknowledged today, more than three years after the pipeline went into service landowners still face unaddressed construction damage to a number of farms and residential properties.

“EDF emphasized to FERC the importance of conducting a transparent and rigorous review to address these harms and the other deficiencies in its prior orders. Instead, FERC accepted self-interested claims by the pipeline owner and its affiliate as fact without considering input from any other parties. FERC should reverse its decision to grant the Spire STL Pipeline a new permanent certificate, reopen the proceeding with the temporary certificate still in place to ensure no disruption in gas service, and provide an opportunity for landowners, ratepayers, and other stakeholders to file comments and evidence regarding the new claims made by the pipeline owner and its affiliate. As EDF has consistently stated, the pipeline should be allowed to continue operating through the duration of this necessary review process, to ensure reliable service for customers in the St. Louis area.”

            - Ted Kelly, EDF senior attorney for energy markets and regulation