SALEM, OR – The Oklahoma-based company that owns one of the largest gas pipeline networks in the Northwest is beginning to pursue permits to expand that network, and to pump more gas to the region to meet rising electricity demand.
Pipeline company Williams, owner of the 4,000-mile long Northwest Pipeline system that brings fracked gas from Rocky Mountain states to Idaho, Washington and Oregon, last month submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission paperwork to build a new pipeline called the Silver Spur between two existing gas transmission lines in Idaho and Nevada. The news was first reported by the nonprofit gas industry watchdog group Oil and Gas Watch.
If approved, the 88-mile pipeline would carry up to 275 million additional standard cubic feet of natural gas per day to the Northwest, while states like Oregon and Washington simultaneously try to drive down gas consumption through policies and pollution caps meant to slow the growing threat of climate change. Environmental advocates say Williams’ claims that the pipeline is meant to meet overall demand for electricity growing in the region masks that the demand is being driven almost entirely by data centers…