Retained as expert witnesses by Washington State Office of the Attorney General (AGO) in the matter of Lighthouse Resources, Inc., et al. v. Jay Inslee, et al. before the US District Court (West). Prepared written expert testimony Expert Report on Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview/Lighthouse and the Expert Rebuttal Report on Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview/Lighthouse. The reports analyze the burden to the US coal industry if the Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview (Millennium) were not built.
Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE)
Two years before Governor Cuomo’s May 2020 rejection of this controversial pipeline project (to transport shale gas from Pennsylvania to NYC), TGG demonstrated that Williams was substantially overstating employment and other economic benefits of the Project. TGG’s Expert Report on the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Project Economic Impact Analysis for New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, commissioned by the Eastern Environmental Law Center (EELC) in May 2018, evaluates the economic impact study prepared for the proponent by Michael Lahr and Will Irving of Rutgers University.
Kalama Manufacturing & Marine Export Facility
In 2017, TGG was retained by Earthjustice to review and provide expert testimony regarding the environmental and economic impacts of Kalama Manufacturing and Marine Export Facility (Kalama). Kalama is a proposed petrochemical refinery in Port of Kalama, Washington, using large quantities of fracked gas to produce methanol. At full capacity, Kalama would be the world’s largest methanol facility. It would produce up to 3.6 million metric tons of methanol per year, for export to China as feedstock for plastic production. This project remains highly controversial due to significant environmental and health risks, and has attracted widespread public opposition in the Pacific Northwest.
Valero Crude by Rail Project, Benicia, California
TGG was retained by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 2013 to provide an expert report on a proposed crude-by-rail (CBR) terminal project at a Valero refinery in Benicia, California. In July 2013, TGG filed Comments on Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) Valero Crude by Rail Project Benicia, California with the City of Benicia. In our report, TGG provided a market analysis of the project. The report was included as an attachment to NRDC's Comments on Notice of Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Valero Crude by Rail Project, filed with the City of Benicia on July 1, 2013.
Tesoro Savage Vancouver Energy Distribution Terminal
In January 2018, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee rejected the Vancouver Energy Distribution Terminal (VEDT), the largest proposed crude-by-rail terminal in the US – and the largest proposed oil terminal on the West Coast. In response to the Governor’s decision, Tesoro Savage (the project applicant) terminated all development activities and cancelled the project in February 2018.
PennEast Pipeline Project
In 2015, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) commissioned TGG to evaluate the economic impacts of the PennEast Pipeline. TGG’s Expert Report on the PennEast Pipeline Project Economic Impact Analysis for New Jersey and Pennsylvania evaluated the economic impact study (PennEast Pipeline Project Economic Impact Report and Analysis) prepared for the PennEast Pipeline Company.
Keystone XL Pipeline for South Dakota
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) of South Dakota retained TGG in 2015 to provide expert testimony in the Keystone XL (KXL) permit recertification case before the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). TGG’s written expert testimony, Changes to the Economic Costs and Benefits of the Keystone XL Pipeline for South Dakota, was filed on behalf of the RST in April 2015 (and withdrawn in July 2015).
Keystone XL Market Analysis
TGG and KXL: On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued an Inauguration Day executive order to rescind the construction permit for the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline. Since KXL was first proposed by TransCanada in 2008, the pipeline has been the subject of a long and divisive public debate. This debate and the accompanying media coverage have been characterized by significant misunderstanding and misinformation concerning the pipeline’s environmental and economic impacts. During the Obama Presidency, the pipeline underwent an extensive federal review process by the State Department over a seven-year period. TGG released several highly influential expert reports, notably Pipe Dreams and the Keystone XL Market Analysis, described here. Our reports demonstrated to the Obama Administration and the media that the economic benefits of KXL have been greatly exaggerated by the proponents while the environmental costs have been understated. See Project Pages for Keystone XL in South Dakota and Keystone XL Job Study for more information about TGG’s work on KXL.
Keystone XL Job Study (10th Anniversary)
TGG’s jobs analysis in Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL was used to demonstrate to the US media and the Obama Administration that KXL would not be a major job creator for the US, nor would it have any substantial impact on US employment. TGG co-authored this influential and widely publicized study on the employment impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline with the Cornell Global Labour Institute in 2011. The report was released in September 2011 and updated in January 2012. TGG’S Ian Goodman and Brigid Rowan provided the economic analysis to demonstrate that TransCanada Pipelines Ltd had greatly exaggerated the employment impacts of the Keystone XL (KXL) Project. TGG estimated the Project would create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years and at the most a handful of permanent jobs (ranging from a low of 20 to a high of 127).