ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Natural gas provider Spire is warning St. Louis-area customers that if we have another cold winter and if an almost 2-year-old, 65-mile pipeline shuts down on Dec. 13 as scheduled, up to 400,000 homes and businesses in the area could be left out in the cold.
Spire built the pipeline with the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and was operational when the Environmental Defense Fund sued FERC in January of 2020. The lawsuit said FERC did not follow their own rules for approval and that a new pipeline was not justified because our region saw little if any population growth. An appeals court agreed with the Environmental Defense Fund, Spire then appealed to the US Supreme Court which refused to hear the case.
As it stands today, the Spire STL pipeline has a short term certificate from FERC to operate the pipeline through Dec. 13 and is waiting on FERC’s decision on their Temporary Emergency Certificate to operate the pipeline through winter.
“The value of that pipeline has been really amazing through last winter and through winter storm Uri where we were able to save the St. Louis region hundreds of millions in gas costs because we were able to access a supply basin that was not affected by the freeze-ins we saw in Texas and Oklahoma," Scott Carter, President of Spire Missouri said on KMOX's Charlie Brennan and Amy Marxkors Show on Tuesday.
Carter goes on to say that if Spire STL pipeline is shuttered “we’re going to have to build new pipelines and bring in new supply sources that is an even further environmental impact and we don’t think that’s in the best interests of our customers. And we certainly don’t think it’s in the best interest of the environmental considerations.”
And in a bit of irony, among the support letters to FERC to keep the pipeline open was from an environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund.
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