8-2-10 Elko Daily Free Press
Ruby Pipeline work begins
ELKO - El Paso Corp. has started work on the Ruby Pipeline, now that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued the order to proceed.
"They can start digging" for the 680-mile natural gas pipeline, FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said Monday.
El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley said via e-mail that El Paso officially started work on Saturday, the day after FERC issued the order.
That's good news for a union of welders that has been waiting for jobs.
"Hopefully, now that FERC has gone ahead with the notice to proceed, employees are able to get on the road," said Chad Gilbert of Local 798 out of Tulsa, Okla. "Some of them haven't worked in nine months because of the downturn in the economy throughout the United States."
He also said communities will begin seeing the economic benefits of the construction project as workers come to their towns.
Gilbert said the union expects to have about 900 welders on the job, coming from several states. He represents welders in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, but the local covers 42 states.
"They're family-oriented, good people," Gilbert said.
El Paso's Western Pipeline president, Jim Clearly, said in an announcement Monday Ruby Pipeline will employ nearly 5,000 people during construction.
"We are very pleased that we have final FERC approval," he said.
The pipeline will be the first carbon-neutral pipeline to be constructed in the country, and will have four compressor stations, including one in Elko County.
The order allows El Paso to start the pipeline, but the company still has to meet certain requirements during construction and after construction, Young-Allen said. Also, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has to issue orders for work on public land.
Meanwhile, she said requests to FERC for a rehearing on its decision last spring granting El Paso the initial approval are still pending.
The Center for Biological Diversity sent its request just last week to FERC and filed a lawsuit against the BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco on Friday.
Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director, said Monday the center hasn't decided yet whether to seek an injunction to stop the pipeline.
He said the lawsuit challenges the Fish and Wildlife Service's biological opinion and BLM's record of decision granting rights of ways for the pipeline.
"Our position is the project will have a harmful effect on fish and El Paso hasn't done enough," Greenwald said.
He said the pipeline will cross more than 1,000 rivers and streams, and alternatives could include new routes or new methods of crossing streams.
The center filed directly with the 9th Circuit because of a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that bypasses district court, according to the center. Its request before FERC and the lawsuit will proceed concurrently.
The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife earlier filed their requests for a rehearing, and those also are pending.
Two other organizations, Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association, asked for a rehearing, but they dropped their request after El Paso reached an agreement with them to establish $20 million in conservation funds.
The groups want to purchase and retire grazing permits, a goal that has sparked protests from county governments and ranchers along the pipeline route from Wyoming to Oregon.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., "is seriously disappointed in the agreement that El Paso entered into with Western Watersheds. He has made it clear to El Paso that they need to make things right with Nevada's ranchers and counties," Tom Brede, a spokesman for the senator, said Monday.
El Paso and the Public Lands Council are supposed to meet this Thursday, and county commissioners plan a joint meeting in Salt Lake City Aug. 12 to talk about the agreement and grazing permits.
Elko County Commissioners also plan to talk about the agreement at their meeting Wednesday.
In addition, the Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands voted Friday to ask Nevada's congressional delegation to block any changes to the Taylor Grazing Act that would allow retirement of grazing permits.
Grazing permits can't be retired under current law, but there have been efforts in Congress to change the wording to allow the federal government to leave permits vacant or retire them.
The most recent effort was last month, and El Paso representatives at the Committee on Public Lands meeting in Ely Friday said the company had nothing to do with that proposal.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, defended grazing on public lands with an amendment to strike language in an Interior appropriations bill that would allow voluntary buyouts. The vote was 13-1 in a House subcommittee.
The El Paso representatives also said Friday that the agreement between the environmental organizations and the company is confidential.