Spire STL gas pipeline stays in business as FERC upholds temporary certificate

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission maintained a temporary authorization that has allowed Spire STL Pipeline LLC to keep delivering natural gas to the St. Louis area after a court struck down the pipeline's original authorization.

FERC denied a request for a stay of its temporary certificate order for the Spire Inc. pipeline (CP17-40) and addressed requests for rehearing in an order issued at its public meeting on Feb. 17, according to an email from the commission's public affairs office. The decision was not in the FERC online library as of press time.

The temporary certificate issued in December 2021 let the 65-mile Spire STL pipeline continue serving the greater St. Louis area while FERC tackled issues raised by the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit. In June 2021, the D.C. Circuit vacated and remanded the commission's 2018 order granting a Natural Gas Act certificate to Spire STL. The court said FERC had not adequately responded to challenges to a precedent agreement for gas transportation with an affiliate, the utility Spire Missouri Inc., that Spire had used to establish the need for the pipeline project.

In denying a stay of the temporary certificate, FERC observed that it "issued the temporary certificate order upon a finding that an emergency existed which, absent the issuance of a temporary certificate, would potentially subject hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to gas shortages during the winter heating season." FERC did not act on Spire's pending application for a new certificate, which is still under review after the D.C. Circuit decision, the commission said.

The Spire STL pipeline can move up to 400,000 Dth/d of gas from the Rockies Express Pipeline LLC system to St. Louis. Spire and its supporters have said the pipeline was essential to supply gas to the area through the winter. One of the main opponents of the pipeline, the Environmental Defense Fund, has argued that the infrastructure is a burden on ratepayers.