Environmental activists are targeting the homes of federal energy officials in a week-long series of protests aimed at a key government agency that they blame for “rubber-stamping” fossil fuel projects that encourage fracking.
Activists plan to hold vigils at the homes of all four members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week to coincide with the commission’s public meeting on Thursday. Activists are expected to demonstrate in force outside FERC headquarters in Washington and likely will attempt to bring the protest into the building, as has been the case in the past.
The activists blame the commission for causing environmental harm by approving natural gas pipelines that spur the continued use of fossil fuels both domestically and abroad. The pipelines also support the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and spur the continued development of shale gas.
The activists involved in the Beyond Extreme Energy protests this week say “the agency rubber-stamps approvals for interstate fracked gas pipelines, export terminals and other infrastructure that is destroying local communities and super-charging the climate crisis,” according to a coalition of activists who call themselves the Rubber Stamp Rebellion.
They say the natural gas produced from fracking “is methane, and leaked methane traps 86 times as much heat per molecule as carbon dioxide,” which many scientists blame for causing global warming.
In addition to trying to disrupt the FERC meeting, they say they will be taking the protests to commissioners’ homes to hold vigil against fossil fuels.
“We’ll be visiting the four FERC commissioners at their homes to hold them accountable for their decisions, which are made far from the communities affected and with no consideration of the harm from climate change,” the activists said.
It also will be holding protests outside of the Washington headquarters of several pipeline companies.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Republican FERC Commissioner Tony Clark said the activists’ energy is misplaced.
“When you look at what some of these environmental groups that are protesting at FERC are really talking about, it’s not actually about the pipeline itself,” Clark said. “They just don’t like natural gas in general, or they don’t like exploration and production of natural gas, they don’t like hydraulic fracturing.”
“If what you’re really concerned about is the exploration and production of natural gas, and hydro-fracturing, that’s all controlled by the state,” said Clark, saying the activists’ FERC focus is a sign that they are failing at the state level.
“They haven’t had a lot of success in states, obviously, outside of New York. And so they come to Washington and say, ‘Where can we protest the hydraulic fracturing that is going on?'” he said. “Well, there’s not really anywhere in Washington that deals with fracking or shale gas. I guess you can make the argument that on federal land, it’s the Department of Interior, but there’s just not one single agency.”
He said the activists have figured that the commission is the “closest” they can get to fracking because of it being the arbiter for pipeline approvals, as well as siting export facilities to ship natural gas overseas.
Clark said the commission has become the “default” for anyone to come to protest fracking. “I think their energy is completely misplaced,” he added. “FERC is just following the law that set out the Natural Gas Act, which says if these conditions are met, here are steps that the developer has to go through to build a pipeline.”
He said the commission doesn’t control the policy, it implements the law that Congress approved. “Realistically, they should be going to Congress and trying to lobby that. Now, they may not have anymore success there, but legally that’s where the appropriate spot to air their concerns would be,” he says.
“I think FERC has become a convenient target.”
The activists have upped the intensity of their protests in recent days, even forcing commission Chairman Norman Bay to leave an industry conference after protesters rushed the stage where he was delivering a speech.
A spokesman for the agency could not comment on whether security would be increased given the focus on private residences of the commissioners. Commission spokeswoman Mary O’Driscoll said that would be for local law enforcement to decide. The Metropolitan Police Department did not return emails.
O’Driscoll said the commission invites public input on the pipeline approval process, “but we would urge them to make use of the many processes FERC has in place to allow comment on matters pending before the Commission.”
