Members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voiced concern with the hearing process for the Weymouth compressor station.
This opens the possibility members could reconsider a decision for the station to operate.
In a 3-2 vote, Commissioners Rich Glick, Allison Clements, and Neil Chatterjee voted against a denial of a request for a re-hearing on the project.
Alice Arena, the President of the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, says the action by FERC is encouraging.
“It’s kind of a weird way to put it,” said Arena. “By rejecting this denial of our rehearing request, they’re opening the door to FERC actually considering all of these issues as part of the certificate to Algonquin to allow them to operate.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission met Tuesday and felt a current draft order did not address safety concerns.
“Unfortunately, the draft order in my opinion, fails to meet the Commission’s responsibility, which is even greater in a situation such as this,” said Glick. “The project is located in an environmental justice community. In fact, the compressor station is located near…two environmental justice communities. These communities are regularly subjected to heavy amounts of pollution and have a higher rate of cancer, asthma, and other diseases.”
Glick later posted on Twitter that an analysis must take those concerns into account and determine if the project’s impact on communities can be eliminated or mitigated. He felt there has been “little more than lip service paid to environmental justice” from FERC orders.
The station, owned by Enbridge, was ordered to stop operations after two emergency shutdowns in September. More than 440,000 cubic feet of methane was vented into the air.
Clements described those incidents in her opposition.
“I believe the Commission should more carefully consider how to address health and safety concerns regarding these events and potential air quality impacts on communities that are disadvantaged in many ways, and may be particularly susceptible to COVID-19,” said Clement. “I do think, and look forward to working with my colleagues that we can make progress in further considering these issues.”
The Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station are hoping FERC will approve a re-hearing request at next month’s meeting.
“The facility is not operating currently, they are under a corrective action order by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration,” said President Alice Arena. “They are not currently operating. The FERC action does not mean that they won’t be able to operate – it simply means that FERC is doing something very uncharacteristic and actually looking at the potential problems of the situation.”
Arena said they’ll have details on how to comment to the Commissioners at their website – NoCompressor.com.
