Polluters want this pipeline for data centers & gas plants. Let's fight it. ✊🏼

DSW pipeline from Energy Transfer.jpg

⚠️ The Desert Southwest Pipeline is a “must-stop” fossil fuel project.

Tech industries and utilities want this 520-mile gas pipeline to be built across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to expand their power plants and build out data centers, which would pollute the air we breathe and threaten our water, climate, wildlife and community well-being.

Installing and operating a massive 48-inch-wide pipeline would threaten the salt flats and Otero Mesa region of Texas and New Mexico and contaminate important river systems such as the Pecos and Rio Grande, as well as the entire Lower San Pedro Watershed. The compressor stations would pollute communities like El Chaparral, which are already overburdened by pollution, and are now seeing these harms exacerbated by data centers.

If we stop this pipeline project, we can help hold off expansion of the proposed fossil-fueled power plants and data centers that would rely on the gas it would supply. This would allow renewable options to be the focus of investments instead, as they should have been in the first place.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is charged with permitting this pipeline. We have to build a strong public record for why the agency should deny the permits, starting with this first opportunity to comment. FERC isn’t the only agency with decision-making power here. State agencies, which are more accountable to people like me and you, also have a role, and we have to build pressure and make clear that they should say “no” to this project.

✅ It all starts with adding your voice today! Please comment and add a short personal note and subject line to make your message even more impactful. Thank you!

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Re Docket No. PF26-9-000: I oppose the Desert Southwest Pipeline

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There is no way of installing and operating the Desert Southwest Pipeline (the Pipeline) in a safe manner. As you begin your review, please consider the following: 
Otero Mesa 
This Pipeline will pass through the southern region of Otera Mesa, a vast landscape in the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion that hosts more than 1,000 native species, thousands of archeological sites, a large untapped aquifer, and is one of the last native grasslands in the southwest. The southern region of Otero Mesa is in Hudspeth County, Texas and would be directly impacted by the Pipeline. Otero Mesa is already threatened by oil and gas drilling, as well as mining, climate change, and unmanaged recreation, and FERC must ensure that the Pipeline does not further harm this threatened ecosystem. The entire region of West Texas, and especially Otero Mesa are full of sites sacred to tribes indigenous to the region, including the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. 
Salt flats in West Texas 
The pipeline would threaten so many of our other fragile ecosystems, such as the West Texas Salt Flats, in Hudspeth County, Texas. Not only are the salt flats an important historical site that attracts hikers and other visitors, they are home to the incredibly rare and critically imperiled Salt Playa Fairy Shrimp. The Bureau of Land Management recognizes the fairy shrimp as a sensitive species and the state of Texas tracks it as a “Species of Greatest Conservation Need.” Installing and operating the Desert Southwest Pipeline through the West Texas Salt Flats would decimate important Fairy Shrimp habitat. 
Chaparral cannot take more pollution:
The Desert Southwest Pipeline will pass through Chaparral, an environmental justice community in Southern New Mexico. The EPA already recognizes Chaparral as a non-attainment area for ozone, and residents already live with pollution from a power plant and the construction of the Project Jupiter data center. Installing and operating a 48” gas pipeline, the Red Chile lateral, and compressor station will make local air quality even worse and cause even more public health issues among local residents. Chaparral is a low-income community already overburdened with pollution, and cannot afford to live with even more.  
Water crossings:
Water is the most scarce resource in the Southwest, and our small rivers and seasonal washes are what sustain life throughout the region. The horizontal direct drilling (HDD) process for installing a 48” pipeline under a body of water is presented as safe and protective of water resources. However, scientists and communities have documented that this is far from a safe process. Frequently, the pressurized drilling fluids used for HDD spill directly into rivers and the aquifers. We have documented such spills for several pipeline projects in the region including the Permian Highway Pipeline, which leaked drilling fluid into the Pedernalis River in 2020. We are concerned about drilling for the Desert Southwest pipeline contaminating important rivers such as the Rio Grande, Pecos, San Pedro, and others. The cost of contamination is too high and FERC must fully consider these threats. 
The Lower San Pedro Watershed:
This pipeline would adversely impact the lower San Pedro Watershed, part of the second-largest unfragmented landscape in Arizona and New Mexico, and a Global Important Bird Area. This riparian corridor supports more  than 400 bird species, 8 mammal species, 14 fish species, and 40 species of reptiles and amphibians. The pipeline and a planned San Manuel lateral would supply an energy generation facility that would threaten local water resources, as well as sites sacred to the federally recognized San Carlos Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes, which have passed resolutions declaring the San Pedro as a Traditional Cultural Property. 
These are just a few of the issues that FERC should consider while drafting an environmental impact statement for the Desert Southwest Pipeline.

There is no way of installing and operating the Desert Southwest Pipeline (the Pipeline) in a safe manner. As you begin your review, please consider the following: Otero Mesa This Pipeline will pass through the southern region of Otera Mesa, a vast landscape in the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion that hosts more than 1,000 native species, thousands of archeological sites, a large untapped aquifer, and is one of the last native grasslands in the southwest. The southern region of Otero Mesa is in Hudspeth County, Texas and would be directly impacted by the Pipeline. Otero Mesa is already threatened by oil and gas drilling, as well as mining, climate change, and unmanaged recreation, and FERC must ensure that the Pipeline does not further harm this threatened ecosystem. The entire region of West Texas, and especially Otero Mesa are full of sites sacred to tribes indigenous to the region, including the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Salt flats in West Texas The pipeline would threaten so many of our other fragile ecosystems, such as the West Texas Salt Flats, in Hudspeth County, Texas. Not only are the salt flats an important historical site that attracts hikers and other visitors, they are home to the incredibly rare and critically imperiled Salt Playa Fairy Shrimp. The Bureau of Land Management recognizes the fairy shrimp as a sensitive species and the state of Texas tracks it as a “Species of Greatest Conservation Need.” Installing and operating the Desert Southwest Pipeline through the West Texas Salt Flats would decimate important Fairy Shrimp habitat. Chaparral cannot take more pollution: The Desert Southwest Pipeline will pass through Chaparral, an environmental justice community in Southern New Mexico. The EPA already recognizes Chaparral as a non-attainment area for ozone, and residents already live with pollution from a power plant and the construction of the Project Jupiter data center. Installing and operating a 48” gas pipeline, the Red Chile lateral, and compressor station will make local air quality even worse and cause even more public health issues among local residents. Chaparral is a low-income community already overburdened with pollution, and cannot afford to live with even more. Water crossings: Water is the most scarce resource in the Southwest, and our small rivers and seasonal washes are what sustain life throughout the region. The horizontal direct drilling (HDD) process for installing a 48” pipeline under a body of water is presented as safe and protective of water resources. However, scientists and communities have documented that this is far from a safe process. Frequently, the pressurized drilling fluids used for HDD spill directly into rivers and the aquifers. We have documented such spills for several pipeline projects in the region including the Permian Highway Pipeline, which leaked drilling fluid into the Pedernalis River in 2020. We are concerned about drilling for the Desert Southwest pipeline contaminating important rivers such as the Rio Grande, Pecos, San Pedro, and others. The cost of contamination is too high and FERC must fully consider these threats. The Lower San Pedro Watershed: This pipeline would adversely impact the lower San Pedro Watershed, part of the second-largest unfragmented landscape in Arizona and New Mexico, and a Global Important Bird Area. This riparian corridor supports more than 400 bird species, 8 mammal species, 14 fish species, and 40 species of reptiles and amphibians. The pipeline and a planned San Manuel lateral would supply an energy generation facility that would threaten local water resources, as well as sites sacred to the federally recognized San Carlos Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes, which have passed resolutions declaring the San Pedro as a Traditional Cultural Property. These are just a few of the issues that FERC should consider while drafting an environmental impact statement for the Desert Southwest Pipeline.

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Screenshot of 48-inch gas pipe from Energy Transfer website.