Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE)

Videographer Kelsey Erickson has uploaded a video to YouTube you need to see. If you’re lucky enough that your own community isn’t afflicted with fracking’s toxic and dangerous infrastructure—well heads, pipelines, compressor stations, storage facilities, export terminals—then it may be difficult to understand the critical role the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission plays in its construction.

Erickson’s video documents the testimonies of numerous weary, exasperated individuals from multiple communities who wish that they’d never had to become such experts on this rogue federal agency. But watch what happens when they and their allies come together on FERC’s doorstep.

Imagine a football game. You’re the home team and you’re playing defense. It’s a tough game and not exactly fair. Why? Because the other team is FREAKING HUGE.

But wait, there’s more. Bloodied and bruised, now imagine looking over the line of scrimmage at the opposing team and seeing something that just can’t be right. What are the refs doing in the middle of their huddle?

In the great American game of FERCball, this surreal and grossly unfair situation occurs just as often as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regularly convenes seminars around the country for the benefit of the industries it regulates. The purpose of the seminars is to help permit applicants successfully navigate the labyrinth of FERC procedures. It’s like the refs helping one side know which plays to call.

But FERC’s bend-over-backwards assistance to industry execs goes even further as Ann Nau of Myersville, MD discovered recently.

As if we don’t already know the disdain with which FERC looks onto impacted communities, they’ve been holding ‘pre-seminars’ in addition to the normal industry seminars.

(Myersville, by the way, has been fighting—and thus far, losing—a battle to keep a dangerous compressor station out of their town and away from their churches, stores, and elementary school.)

It’s easy to understand Ann’s frustration. Look how FERC describes these pre-seminars.

“Strategize for dealing with difficult behavior”? “Enhance your negotiation skills”? And these trainings are provided free of charge around the country, multiple times per year? It’s sadly obvious whose side these “referees” are on.

It’s also very predictable. Back in the locker room and out of sight of the public, these “referees” regularly exchange their striped jerseys for helmets and pads in order to take the field and actually play for the other team. Read—and be appalled by—an April 7, 2015 E&E report by Hannah Northey and Kevin Bogardus entitled Employees Negotiate For Industry Jobs Under Agency’s Eye.

Writing on the basis of research done under a Freedom Of Information Act request, Northey and Bogardus conclude in part,

Employees at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have deep ties to the industry they regulate, according to agency documents detailing their job negotiations and stock holdings…

Ethics records throughout 2014 show agency staff seeking employment with grid operators, law firms and utilities that the agency has jurisdiction over and often meets with as it sets new orders and rules.

The authors uncovered at least forty instances last year in which FERC employees entered job negotiations with the industries they regulate. What makes FERC’s employees so valuable? According to former FERC staffer Travis Fisher,

“It’s a certain level of expertise, the sweet spot is somewhere in that four-to-five-year mark,” he said. Fisher said he, like his former colleagues, gained a keen understanding of which draft orders would compel commissioners and what language would have to be scrapped or rewritten — valuable insight for utilities seeking to comply with the FERC regulation.

“Your job at FERC was to read those pleadings, from the utility side you’re writing those pleadings,” Fisher said. “Someone fresh out of FERC is extra valuable because of their knowledge of the politics of the organization.”

Of course, many FERC commissioners and upper level staff only put on referee jerseys after changing out of their industry uniforms and helmets in the first place. It probably goes without saying that no one thus far has written an extensively researched article about the revolving door between FERC and, say, the climate justice movement or the front line communities trying to protect their ground water, their children, and their lives.

So let’s sum up.

It’s not supposed to be this way. It’s time to change the game.

The Fight Against FERC: 

Communities Demand An Accountable Government

by Angela Vogel

FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydropower projects. Since 1935 when it first became an independent regulatory agency it has done little to protect citizens from exploitation. Instead, the agency uses its vast powers to facilitate the expansion of dirty and deadly extraction for export to international markets. FERC ensures that toxic energy projects create greater profits for rich developers while leaving poisoned communities with the lie of so-called U.S. energy independence through fossil fuels.

Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), a frontline and activist network that came together in 2014 to begin fighting FERC’s facilitation of dirty energy projects, has put constant “unprecedented” pressure on this industry-funded agency leading FERC Chair Cheryl LaFleur to say, “We have a situation here.” BXE believes that direct action plays a crucial role in supporting frontline communities to take their battles to FERC’s doorstep and face them in person and in bringing attention to the life and death situation these communities have been fighting for years.

“Here in rural Pennsylvania, there are many families who are facing a horrible fate. FERC would like to approve massive natural gas pipelines that will destroy countless generations-old family farms and homes.  For many of these families the option to move elsewhere does not exist due to financial burdens or long-time connections to the land and community,” says Deirdre Lally, a volunteer with Shalefield Organizing Committee.

“Our numbers are small but powerful,” says Maria Kretschmann of anti-fracking group E.D.G.E. (Ending Dirty Gas Exploitation) whose family-owned organic farm is threatened by expanding fracking infrastructure. “Communities must join together because we have enemies with fat pockets, dozens of lawyers on hand and no moral compass. We fight not just for ourselves and our friends but for those who cannot defend themselves or come to D.C.”

BXE is partnering with community-focused groups to echo the frontline fights in D.C. and to present a fully-rounded strategy against the industry-funded, rubber stamping behemoth FERC.  This battle must continue escalating to reflect the severe implications of what is at stake, and what is, quite literally, coming down the pipe.  The coalition has outlined a nine-point short-term plan for reforming FERC that is posted to their website (http://tinyurl.com/masznzn). However, long-term goals may look a little different. According to Faith Meckley of the frontline group We Are Seneca Lake, “The system is no longer made for the people but for the benefit of the companies. We need to make it really clear that we can no longer be ignored, and it’s time for a new system to be built.”

While it is of the utmost importance that frontline communities, separated by both geography and often culture, come together with support from the broader environmental movement, it’s equally important that the issue of global warming and impending climate chaos not get lost. Since Cornell first released findings in 2011 that high quantities of methane released from fracking makes it more dangerous than coal, the scientific community has found more and more evidence to back this up leaving many to wonder how the industry ever sold us the snake-oil promise of a ‘natural’ bridge-fuel and how we will reach the carbon emission goals necessary for ongoing life on the planet if fracked gas extraction continues to expand with the help of agencies like FERC.

“We are all downstream and downwind,” says Lally, “and we must continue to support each other in this struggle, because eventually we will win, but only if we do it together.”

Join BXE for a week of actions actions at FERC

May 21-29!

https://beyondextremeenergy.org/sign-up-for-mass-action-at-ferc-in-may/

Contact info@beyondextremeenergy.org

for details on housing, workshops, & more!

Anyone remember the Blue Meanies from the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine movie?

Trust me–they were very mean. And although the film neglected to mention it, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that in addition to hating music, they rubber stamped fracking infrastructure projects whenever they had the opportunity.

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New lyrics by NYC’s Occupy The Pipeline. Inspired editing by Bill Huston. And let’s not forget a shout out to John, Paul, George, and Ringo!

GIF edition!

Sometimes you read something so good, you just have to high five the internet a little bit.

The Recorder, the “newspaper of record serving scenic Bath and Highland counties, and the Allegheny Highlands of Virginia”, published a stellar editorial on March 26th that deserves to be read by far more than the paper’s 5,000 subscribers.

In “Aww, FERC Is Frustrated,” the editors respond to FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur’s infamous and telling comment, “We have a situation here.” If the commissioners are perplexed by the recent groundswell of opposition to fracking and its associated infrastructure, The Record, at least, is not.

“Why the “unprecedented” outcry, Ms. LaFleur? Because of the industry’s failure to adequately protect us, and your agency’s failure to do the same.”

“We see little evidence of a sturdy, unblemished record of oversight or protection. What we do see is the gas industry has much more control over FERC, state agencies, and lawmakers who make up the rules than it should.”

“You are not representing our interests, Ms. LaFleur. You are representing industries that have full and powerful resources to mostly glide through your processes with ease.”

“Until your agency can balance its mission to help the energy sector with its mission to minimize risk, Ms. LaFleur, your in-box will remain flooded for the foreseeable future. Get used to it”

We here at Beyond Extreme Energy could not agree more.

Read “Aww, FERC Is Frustrated” at https://recorder.our-hometown.com/news/2015-03-26/Opinions_%28and%29___Commentary/Aww_FERC_is_frustrated_002.html.

Tracey Eno of Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community had this to say about Dominion Resources’ groundbreaking ceremony today for its LNG export plant at Cove Point.

“The residents of Lusby are NOT celebrating Dominion’s ‘TOWN-breaking Ceremony’ today. It’s no surprise that this event was kept a secret until the last minute and is closed to the public ‘due to security concerns,’ according to Dominion PR spokesperson, Karl Neddenien. If Dominion is worried about security, they should think twice about building a dangerous liquefaction train next to the 20,483 residents of Lusby. We worry about security every day and the risk of vapor clouds and explosions of propane and LNG, with potential for grave catastrophe. The 2006 Maryland Department of Natural Resources study shows that 360 families are at risk of a flash fire right now.

“We look forward to meeting with Governor Hogan to tell him the truth. We can only assume he hasn’t studied the details of the project. We recommend he Google ‘Images Skikda Algeria 2004’ as a primer.”

500 activated citizens assemble at a fantastic rally organized inBlacksburg, VA! BXE appreciates the invitation to support and participate! We will stop the #FERCus together (bit.ly/BXEMAY)!