Last Call to Reject Blanket Certificates!
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed a new Blanket Certificate policy, and as usual it's a rubber stamp for polluters to run roughshod over our climate and communities. Even more dangerous, the Supreme Court just gave Trump king-like powers to dismiss supposedly independent regulators like FERC if they oppose his agenda of fossil fuel “energy dominance.”
This Thursday (July16th) Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) is headed to the FERC offices in Washington D.C. to protest their monthly Commissioners meeting. We'll be hand delivering our collected comments rejecting new 'blanket certificates' policies proposed in May.
You can join us in D.C. July 16th by registering here. We have housing the night before at Luther Place in DC. Join us for an art build there July 15th at 7ish. We'll be at the FERC offices at 888 First St NE Washington D.C. bright and early- usually 7AM-9AM before heading into the FERC meeting at 10AM.
You can still help from afar by filing an official comment here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-ferc-we-call-bullshit-on-your-blanket-certificates
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Blanket Certificates were originally meant to give efficient approval to small alterations to project proposals that had already been evaluated and permitted. These new blanket certificates, allow for larger projects like LNG terminals and large scale changes that significantly alter the environmental and climate impact of a given project.
Instead of having to face new rounds of regulatory work, appeals, and slowed by community push back, these policies allow for companies to simply add new large scale facets to their plans.
Last month we strung up a banner made of a blanket (Blanket Certificates - Fast Track to Hell) during the June FERC Commissioner's meeting. We got a lot of verbal support from passersby and FERC staff. Some were upset that Three Mile Isle nuclear reactor was being brought back online, to service Microsoft's massive AI data centers. Should AI data centers be granted blanket certification for their energy plans? NO!
Two projects, in particular, demonstrate how these new and expanded blanket certificates can be abused:
- Argent LNG - This would be the second biggest LNG terminal in Louisiana, if approved. It would also be a way for BP to test “ultra deepwater” drilling for gas. Yeah, that BP - the one that caused the Deepwater Horizon accident. But because they’re re-using some old pipes and infrastructure for the project, they want the whole thing to be covered by a blanket permit.
- Green Chile pipeline - Energy Transfer (of Dakota Access infamy) is asking for a blanket certificate to build this 18 mile spur off an existing gas pipeline. But the bigger issue is that Green Chile would only have one customer: the massive data center called Project Jupiter that’s bigger than New York's Central Park, and will need as much as two-and-a-half gigawatts of electricity, more than half of what New Mexico uses right now - and all to be generated by its own private fleet of gas power plants.
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Submitted by admin on Mon, 07/13/2026 - 13:26
