Barbara Jost

GTN Xpress Project aims to expand gas service in the Pacific Northwest After more than two years and much debate, FERC recently approved Gas Transmission Northwest LLC's (GTN) GTN XPress Project. GTN XPress was designed to add 150,000 Dth/d of pipeline capacity to the GTN system, enabling it to expand its gas service in the Pacific Northwest. Most press coverage of the GTN XPress order has focused on FERC's assessment of climate-related impacts.

It is a bedrock principle of natural gas pipeline regulation that pipelines can only sell up to the transportation capacity of their systems on a firm basis. In return, shippers who want such firm service pay "recourse rate" reservation charges which enable the pipeline to recover all of its costs to provide service, plus make a profit.

Buried toward the end of the 91-page bill unveiled by Senator Manchin on September 21, 2022, is a small but significant provision amending the Natural Gas Act's (NGA) definition of natural gas to include "hydrogen mixed or unmixed with natural gas." Because of that provision, if enacted, the bill, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022, which is intended to speed up the nation's energy infrastructure permitting process, would put to rest a long-standing debate over whether the...