Today is the day to send your no SSEP comment! For years we’ve fought various projects from the Williams Companies, which operates a national network of fracked gas pipelines. Now, Williams has applied to build the “Southeast Supply Enhancement Project” or SSEP, which would super-size gas in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia with the largest East Coast pipeline proposal in a decade.
SSEP is not a new pipeline, but rather an expansion of the existing Williams Transco network of high pressure fracked gas pipelines. The SSEP project would span five states: Virginia , North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. If approved, the super-sized SSEP would pump 1.6 billion cubic feet of methane gas per day through a new and expanded 42 inch diameter pipeline. That’s like the same as trying to fit 18,123 full Olympic sized swimming pools through a hula hoop every day!
We’ll put up a simple comment tool like we did for the MVP southgate project soon, but in the meanwhile, you can use this comment guide from our friends at POWHR and 7 generations of service to submit a comment (Use Docket Number CP25-10-000 to get your comment in the right place via the FERC E-comment tool) and join the virtual comment party Tonight April 1st at 6:30PM – RSVP here! .
SSEP isn’t just a bigger, badder pipeline. The proposal also includes compressor station expansions with horrible air quality and health impacts that come with them. And, since more than 90% of the gas will go to three big utilities (including our old enemies Duke) to feed new fossil fuel power plants, it will also pollute communities near power plants, and thwart state efforts to reduce climate pollution in states like North Carolina and Virginia.
In fact, a recent report by Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis found that the rush to build fossil fuel infrastructure like SSEP is mostly due to data center demand and is at risk of being overbuilt — in other words it’s energy (and pollution) for robots, real people don’t even get the power!
SSEP is a super-sized climate risk, and we need to rise up to stop it across the Southeast. Click here to use the comment guide and tell FERC: No SSEP!