Leach XPress Gas Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Media and Democracy.

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Leach XPress Gas Pipeline is an operating natural gas pipeline.

Location

The pipeline runs from Marshall County, West Virginia, through Pennsylvania and Ohio to Wayne County, West Virginia.

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Project Details

• Operator: TransCanada
• Current capacity: 1.5 billion cubic feet per day
• Proposed capacity:
• Length: 160 miles / 257 km
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2018

Background

The Leach XPress Gas Pipeline is owned and operated by TransCanada. The pipeline was approved by FERC in January 2017 and became operational in January 2018.

Environmental Impact

In June 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accused FERC of failing to consider a number of key factors in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Leach Xpress Pipeline, including "information regarding alternatives; avoidance of impacts to streams and wetlands; impacts to forests; noise impacts near residential areas; greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change." The EPA had requested this information in compliance with new guidelines issued by President Obama's Council for Environmental Quality that directed federal agencies to consider climate change during environmental reviews. The Obama administration’s EPA stated in filings submitted to FERC that the agency had failed to conduct proper climate-change analyses as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In September 2016 FERC issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the pipeline. In October 2016 the EPA accused FERC of again failing to address the pipeline's impact on climate change in its FEIS. According to NPR's State Impact, "The EPA charged that FERC had failed to comply with guidance by the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality to properly take greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into account when assessing the merits of the project.