With the help of a Republican commssioner who was its Trump administration chairman, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved 87 miles of natural gas pipeline replacement in South Dakota and Nebraska after reviewing its effect on climate change—the agency's first such action.

尼尔·查特吉（Neil Chatterjee）加入了现任FERC主席理查德·格里克（Richard Glick）和艾莉森·克莱门特斯（Allison Clements），都是民主党人的3-2决定。共和党人詹姆斯·日报（James Daily）和马克·克里斯蒂（Mark Christie）都在3月22日的决定中反对。

“We find that the project’s contribution to climate change would not be significant,” the commission said in its review of Northern Natural Gas Co.’s request to replace a pipeline that was built in the 1940s and 1950s, the A-line that carries gas from South Sioux, Neb. to Sioux Falls, S.D.

In a significant change in policy, FERC will continue to consider all appropriate evidence regarding the significance of a project’s reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions and their contribution to climate change, the agency said in the decision. Glick, who took over as chairman after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, said FERC is committed to treating GHG emissions' contribution to climate change the same as all other environmental impacts.

他说：“提议的管道对气候变化的贡献是最重要的环境影响之一，我们必须考虑记录中的所有证据，以评估这种影响的重要性。”

The order noted, however, that the evidence the commission relies on to assess significance may evolve. On Feb. 18 FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry seeking new information and additional stakeholder perspectives to help it decide whetherto revise its approach for assessing the significance of GHG emissions. Future changes would not affect its Northern Natural Gas decision, the order said.

FERC compared the $173.8 million project’s foreseeable GHG emissions to total GHG emissions of the US.

“This project could potentially increase CO2 emissions based on 2018 levels by 0.0003%, in subsequent years, the operations only would be 0.000006%,” the order said.

The company wants to replace the existing pipeline because it has mechanical joints and acetylene welds that are more susceptible to leaks and hydrostatic pressure test failures. The existing pipeline will be sold to a salvage company and removed.

Danly agreed that the project should be approved, but dissented in part, saying the commission violated the law “by reversing its longstanding determination that it is unable to assess the significance of a project’s GHG emissions or those emissions’ contribution to climate change without sufficient reasoning.”

Danly said the order is “regulatory malfeasance at its most arbitrary and capricious,” and the change in policy direction announced is in “an obscure docket that is likely not to be appealed.”

In his 12 page dissent, Danley said “this order is likely to have profound consequences. I reiterate the advice I have given to everyone who would listen:Every singlenatural gas pipeline company, LNG company,and shipper should intervene in每一个证书项目。现在开始。”

Trump replaced Chatterjee as chairman after the November election purportedly because of his openness to reducing carbon emissions in the power sector. Chatterjee told the Associated Press that “without compromise like this, needed infrastructure won’t get built” around the country.” Danley succeeded him from then until the Biden presidency.

克里斯蒂（Christie）也不反对该决定对项目对气候变化的影响的审查。他说：“这是一个主要的法律问题，将在一个月前在2月会议上发起的单独程序中考虑。”

总统拜登取消Keystone XL管道, which would transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of Canadian oil from Alberta to Texas immediately upon his inauguration because of its effect on climate change.

In response, 21 states sued Biden and seven members of his cabinet over the decision to revoke the presidential permit allowing the pipeline to cross the Canadian border, effectively cancelling the entire project.

“The U.S. government has studied the safety, environmental impact, and economic benefits of Keystone XL for years. It repeatedly concluded that the pipeline would have a negligible impact on the climate but significant impact on the economy and American energy independence,” says the lawsuit filed March 17 in U.S. federal court in Galveston.

加拿大公司TC Energy首次申请了管道在2008年与加拿大边境越过边界的许可，但在2015年被奥巴马总统拒绝。

特朗普政府于2019年发布了新的许可证。拜登得出结论认为，气候变化对美国经济的影响越来越大，而Keystone XL的批准将通过削弱美国的信誉和敦促其他国家采取雄心勃勃的气候行动来破坏美国气候领导。他支持加速向清洁能源经济的过渡。

But Biden lacks the power to enact his plan to “reshape the economy in defiance of Congress’s unwillingness to do so,” the lawsuit says, noting that the cancellation will eliminate about 3,700 Montana-based construction jobs and adversely affect the refining industry in Texas and Louisiana.

States filing the lawsuit include Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and others.