Will DC Break Free of Its Methane-Gas—and Economic-Growth—Shackles?

by Alix Underwood

How do we stop climate change? One decommissioned fossil-fuel pipe at a time, via hard-fought local battles to change energy infrastructure and decrease energy consumption. Who do we fight these battles against? Profit-hungry corporations that monopolize energy markets and back-pocket politicians that help them guard the fossil façade.

In the U.S. capital, the climate-change rubber hits the road as activists pressure an obscure and unelected decision-making body, the Public Service Commission (PSC), to reject a proposal for a natural gas infrastructure replacement project. Washington Gas Light Company, the primary natural gas utility in the region, submitted the proposal. One of the oldest U.S. utility companies, Washington Gas is now a subsidiary of Canada-based AltaGas.

Netting $225 million in 2023—a sixteen percent increase from 2022—Washington Gas has plenty of incentive to prolong its methane-providing heyday. It is actively doing so via PROJECTpipes. It plans to continue to do so via a new phase of the project, which the company has greenwashed by naming District SAFE. The proposal entails spending hundreds of millions of dollars—funded by customer rate increases—on an infrastructure revamp. The result would be to either a) lock DC into decades more of reliance on natural gas or b) end up with unmanageable stranded assets.

DC’s PSC must reject any proposal for more than the leaky-pipe repairs necessary to keep citizens safe until their homes are electrified. However, true, long-term sustainability will require the District to disentangle energy provision from the dominant economic growth model.

Natural Gas (A.K.A. Methane Gas) is Not Clean Energy

Natural gas, more accurately termed methane gas, is a fossil fuel. Similarly to petroleum, it forms over millions of years as sediment crushes organic matter. Methane gas is typically extracted, transported, and consumed in gaseous form and inevitably leaks at each stage of the process (including from your gas stove). Producers also intentionally “vent” methane into the atmosphere, an operational practice to control gas flows, temperature, etc.

Carbon dioxide, as the most abundantly emitted and longest-lasting greenhouse gas, is the climate-change poster child. Methane lasts about twelve years in the atmosphere, but while it’s there, it wreaks much more havoc than CO2. For two decades after it’s released, methane has 80 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Decades matter as the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels slips through our fingers.

Natural gas is also bad news for frontline communities. Methane does not directly harm human health, but natural gas contains a cocktail of other, less-friendly chemicals. These include benzene, a known carcinogen; toluene, associated with birth defects; and hexane, which affects the central nervous system.

For frontline communities in DC, natural gas pollution is the latest iteration of a long history of environmental and social injustice. Generations ago, residents from the River Terrace neighborhood fought to shut down a coal plant that was dumping toxic waste into the Anacostia River. Today, they’re bordered by the former plant to the north, major roadways to the east and south, and the polluted Anacostia to the west. And toxic gas leaks from the pipes running through their streets and into their homes.

A team of Pastor Andre Greene’s parishioners, with support from Washington Interfaith Network, has been testing River Terrace’s streets for methane gas leaks for years. They’ve found a leak on almost every block. Greene says, “DC’s need to transition away from gas is not only a climate issue. It is an economic justice issue. It is a racial justice issue. It is a health equity issue. It is a housing issue.” Referencing the decommissioned coal plant, he says this is not the first time his parishioners have organized to get the District off fossil fuels. “Any organizing we do now paves the way for future organizing. It all builds on each other.”

Who Told You It Was Clean?

Pastor Greene points out that gas utilities have spent “more than 50 years marketing gas stoves to consumers despite knowing the health risks.” Worldwide, the fossil-fuel industry has marketed natural gas as a critical component of the clean energy transition; a “bridge fuel.” Starting with the name itself, “natural” gas, the industry has funneled millions of dollars into making the public positively associate with their product. That is why, despite natural gas’s devastating climate and health impacts, over 60 percent of Americans think it is a “clean” energy source and support expanding its use.

Methane companies such as Washington Gas cherry-pick scientific evidence. You may have heard that natural gas combustion emits over 50 percent less carbon dioxide than coal combustion. However, combustion is just one stage of natural gas’s lifecycle. Don’t expect gas companies to advertise that their transmission infrastructure leaked over 1.4 million tons of methane in 2020 alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The real number could be much higher. Several studies have found that the EPA underestimates methane emissions from oil and gas extraction by as much as half.

Regardless, the country—along with the rest of the world—is frantically consuming the convenient lie that fracking copious amounts of fossil methane, transporting it thousands of miles via leaky infrastructure, and burning it in our homes is “natural” and “clean.”

The Rubber Meets the Road: DC’s Struggle Over Its Energy Future

The U.S. capital has an ambitious and comprehensive Clean Energy DC plan. The District plans to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2032 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To reach these goals, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) identified two overarching targets for 2032: for 50 percent of the District’s energy to come from renewables and to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent. The latter, which is critical for degrowth to a steady state economy, is often overlooked.

How can the District ensure this plan isn’t another empty government promise? By taking the reins from for-profit fossil-fuel energy providers who, given their way, would keep us on the natural gas “bridge” until the resource runs out. Washington Gas frames PROJECTpipes as necessary to protect residents from gas leaks. However, the DOEE thoroughly debunked this framing in comments submitted to the PSC regarding the proposal for PROJECTpipes 3. Highlights include:

1. It doesn’t align with DC’s decarbonization goals. PROJECTpipes is designed to continue through 2054, which is after DC is supposed to have reached carbon neutrality.
2. Though the phase three proposal was for $672 million in direct costs, the DOEE estimates the true cost to ratepayers over time at $12 billion. If the District does follow its clean energy plan, much of this investment would end up as stranded assets. New pipes would be “a massive financial and physical liability” that someone (likely residents) would have to absorb.
3. Despite its excessive costs, PROJECTpipes has not adequately improved safety. Since its launch, hazardous gas leaks have increased. The proposed phase three was no better, with a measly 0.4 percent of its budget allocated to advanced leak detection.

The DOEE’s study was preceded by years of efforts by local advocacy groups to put the project, and the little-known PSC, on the public’s radar. Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC), for example, began planning their End Methane, Electrify DC campaign in 2021. They engaged in public, nonviolent direct action against PROJECTpipes almost a year before the phase three proposal was submitted.

In the Words of Local Activists

XRDC has been a creative, disruptive force, turning up the heat on Washington Gas and local officials, including the city council, the mayor, and the PSC. Claire Hacker, an organizer with XRDC, pointed to a particularly effective action: “Last fall, we shut down a Washington Gas construction site where they were actively carrying out PROJECTpipes. Four people laid down right next to the access hole in the street. We were able to stop them from working the entire day. That was really powerful.”

The CCAN Action Fund is another influential actor in the resistance of PROJECTpipes. It leads a coalition of organizations from the greater DC area. This collaboration has allowed for a much bigger footprint, according to Claire Mills, CCAN Action Fund’s DC campaigns manager. The organization’s approach has been different from, and complementary to, XRDC’s: “One of the main ways we demonstrated grassroots support was our Stop Project Pipes petition. We eventually collected over one thousand signatures, which we delivered to the PSC.”

Embedded in the issue, Mills is familiar with the stances and attitudes of each of the three PSC members, appointed by the mayor. Both Mills and Hacker conveyed shock and elation about the PSC’s unprecedented decision to reject PROJECTpipes 3 in June. A significant battle was won, but the war continues, as the PSC will decide whether to approve or reject “District SAFE” in the coming months. Though it has a smaller price tag, District SAFE is not significantly different from PROJECTpipes 3. Hacker says, “We have to keep the pressure on the PSC, to make sure they know we’re still watching them. They have to make another good decision.”

The pressure is, indeed, still on. Thanks to CCAN Action Fund’s organizing, the public submitted to the PSC over 650 comments in opposition to District SAFE. XRDC disrupted a Clean Energy Summit hosted by the PSC. The summit included Washington Gas in a panel about “the future of clean energy in the District.” I participated in one of XRDC’s more festive actions, joining DC’s Holiday Boat Parade on a canoe and asking attendees to encourage the PSC to be on Santa’s nice list.

Beyond PROJECTpipes

The transition away from fossil fuels such as methane gas and toward renewable energy is critical for combatting climate change. However, climate change is not the only planetary boundary humanity has crossed. Renewable energy infrastructure has its own natural resource requirements and environmental impacts and contributes to pushing us past planetary boundaries such as biosphere integrity and land-system change. Ultimately, the only truly sustainable energy solution is to consume less energy.

XRDC and CCAN Action Fund don’t explicitly campaign for degrowth or a steady state economy. However, Hacker and Mills are personally familiar with the concept. They are clear-headed about the fact that if systemic change doesn’t happen, another growth-oriented project may fill the void left by PROJECTpipes. Mills said,

“Ultimately, a lot of the District’s energy consumption problems exist because Washington Gas is a profit-seeking monopoly utility. They approach every decision with an overarching goal to grow their profits and increase the gas they’re pumping through the District. That model is also present in our electric utility, which is also a monopoly. We need to think through how the PSC, as the regulator—and how the DC Council, as the body that has oversight of the PSC—can reframe utilities as necessary basic services for all residents. Monopoly utilities that are investor-owned and profit-driven don’t align well with the interests of District residents.”

Mills pointed out that the PSC sits under the Council’s Committee for Business and Economic Development. The committee views utilities as businesses. The PSC is expected to support businesses—to ensure they make a profit—in addition to fulfilling residents’ needs. Mills suggested that a truly clean energy transition would require viewing utilities as public works. This framing would place the PSC under the Committee on Public Works and Operations, instead.

That’s what the transition to a steady state economy will take, from the local to the global scale. We need to reframe the relationships between governments, corporations, and citizens. As it stands, corporations hold immense power over both governments and citizens. In the case of PROJECTpipes, citizens have broken free from the shackles of a fossil-fuel corporation that spreads lies about the nature of methane gas and its intentions for DC’s energy future. These citizens are pleading with their government to do the same. Stop PROJECTpipes, and don’t let another growth-driven project take its place!

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Alix Underwood is (acting) managing editor at CASSE.