Environmental groups sue federal agency over Middle Tennessee pipeline approval

Warnings are posted in Dickson County near Tennessee Gas Pipeline property. Two environmental groups have sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its approval of a Tennessee Gas Pipeline project. / Tennessee Lookout Photo by John Partipilo Warnings are posted in Dickson County near Tennessee Gas Pipeline property. Two environmental groups have sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its approval of a Tennessee Gas Pipeline project. / Tennessee Lookout Photo by John Partipilo

By Anita Wadhwani / Tennessee Lookout May 1, 2024 3 min read

Environmental groups have filed suit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its approval of a pipeline that will wind through mostly poor and Black Middle Tennessee communities to supply methane gas to a new Tennessee Valley Authority power plant near Clarksville.

The Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices are asking the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to set aside the federal agency’s January order approving the 32-mile pipeline through Dickson, Houston and Stewart counties.

The groups, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the construction and ultimate operations of the pipeline pose a host of avoidable risks to the communities and natural resources that lie in its path and criticized federal regulators for caving to pressure from TVA and Tennessee Gas Pipeline, the company building the pipeline.

“FERC’s decision to greenlight this project ignored the harm the pipeline and gas plant would inflict on Middle Tennessee and beyond,” Spencer Gall, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “FERC is supposed to safeguard the public interest, not rubber-stamp unnecessary pipeline projects that will harm our communities, hurt the climate and contribute to higher power bills.”