Construction of the Rover Pipeline will create as many as 10,000 jobs across Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, providing hardworking, highly trained professionals with the ability to support themselves and their families. While the project remains under FERC Chairman Norman Bay’s review, these men and women await the opportunity to safely construct a critical piece of energy infrastructure.
For this reason, the General Presidents of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Laborers International Union of North America, the United Association, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers recently filed a joint letter with FERC urging the regulator to approve Rover. As they write:
We ask the Commission to immediately issue the certificate. This project is a 713-mile pipeline designed to transport domestically produced natural gas from processing plants in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to regional markets. As such, Rover will fill a critical gap in the region’s energy infrastructure system.
Further, the General Presidents note that they wrote to FERC over a year ago, calling for a timely review of Rover. And yet, no headway has been made in the project’s approval:
Nearly a year ago, we sent you a letter from our General Presidents urging an expedient review of the Rover Pipeline. Since that time, FERC has held five public meetings on the draft environmental impact statement, taken into account a broad array of public feedback, consulted a range of experts, and issued the project’s final environmental impact statement.
And they go on to underscore the vital importance of these jobs to members of their respective unions, writing:
While Rover awaits final approval from FERC, so too do our members wait for the opportunity to put this training to good use and earn income. Simply put, many union members depend on opportunities like those that Rover will provide. During this period of extended review, they are unable to provide for their own welfare and that of their families.
CEPI reiterates the filing’s conclusion in “encouraging the Commission to approve the Rover Pipeline in an expeditious manner. It’s time for FERC to finish its work on Rover so that our members can get to work on this vital infrastructure project.” These highly skilled, highly dedicated men and women deserve the chance to earn good wages and build the Rover Pipeline the right way.
Read the full letter here.