A pair of billion-dollar companies want to build a massive pipeline from Texas to Phoenix next year.
And it will go right through Pima County.
The Western Gateway Pipeline is a $5 billion joint venture between multinational energy company Phillips 66 and Houston-based energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan. They’re trying to reconfigure fuel supply routes from Texas into the Southwest and, more importantly, California.
Why build the pipeline? The number of oil refineries in California dropped dramatically over the last four decades, from 40 in 1983 to 12 at last count.
The new pipeline — if built — would transport 200,000 barrels per day of refined gasoline to help offset refinery closures in California.
But before we get into the details of the proposed pipeline, be advised that it will have an uphill fight with both local officials and at least one member of Congress, who don’t want a new underground pipeline running through sensitive environmental areas and tribal lands.
The proposed Western Gateway Pipeline would deliver gasoline from Texas to California, going right through Pima County.
Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva isn’t a fan of the proposal.
Grijalva told the Tucson Agenda that installing a massive underground pipeline through Pima County poses a lot of long-term risks with few rewards for the average resident.
While there isn’t a highly detailed map available of the proposed route, Grijalva said she worries the pipeline would require crews to clear and dig up environmentally sensitive land the county has long sought to protect from developers.
That could include sections of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, which her father — the late congressman and former county supervisor Raúl Grijalva — spent decades helping protect as part of an effort to shield roughly two million acres from bulldozers.
“No way I am ever going to support this,” Grijalva told us.
And if the proposed pipeline is taken out of the hands of local elected leaders and made into a federal priority, Grijalva sits on a key committee that could have jurisdiction over a massive pipeline running through half the state — the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Pima County Supervisor Jennifer Allen said she was aware that Phillips 66/Kinder Morgan approached the county about the proposed pipeline.
Allen, who has long been an advocate for environmental justice, said the Western Gateway Pipeline wasn’t a good fit for Pima County.
Her district includes a large section of western Pima County, and she has concerns about what a potential environmental accident could mean for tribal lands and the rural parts of Pima County that the pipeline would likely go through if developers break ground next year.
Pima County officials confirmed there were several meetings with the company. County departments are now working on a memo outlining concerns about the short-term and long-term impacts of the proposed pipeline.
The proposal isn’t going to get a warm welcome at the City of Tucson if the actual route goes through the city limits.
Tucson City Councilman Kevin Dahl, also a respected conservationist in the Sonoran Desert region, told us the proposal is dead on arrival.
“This pipeline is another example of (the Trump Administration) going full speed in the wrong direction. In this time of extreme heat due to global warming, we must stop our addiction to fossil fuels and transition as fast as possible to renewable sources like wind and solar,” Dahl said.
Where do we get our gas?
There are no gasoline refineries in Arizona and the entire state is dependent on gas pipelines to supply fuel.
The semis hauling gasoline we are all familiar with are taking it from storage facilities to the last mile — meaning, the gas station.
The proposed Western Gateway Pipeline is a mixture of proposed new pipelines and existing infrastructure.
Tucson is already served by a 12-inch pipeline from El Paso, known as the “East Line.” The Western Gateway Pipeline map online shows the construction of a new pipeline roughly along the same route.
The proposed pipeline between Tucson and Phoenix, however, would take an entirely new route. That route is nowhere near existing infrastructure.
As for California, the existing pipeline from California to Phoenix would reverse the flow under the new proposal.
Instead of pumping gasoline from California to Phoenix — as it was first built to do — it would send fuel from Phoenix (supplied by Texas refineries) to California.
An aerial view of the Kinder Morgan facilities in Tucson off of South Dodge Boulevard.
In Tucson, Kinder Morgan has a fuel storage facility on Refinery Way near the airport. Fuel arriving there is then distributed by truck to gas stations throughout Southern Arizona.
Phillips 66/Kinder Morgan argue that pipelines are inherently safer than other delivery methods.
“U.S. Department of Transportation data has long confirmed that pipelines are by far the safest method of transportation for fuel over long distances,” the company stated in its project overview.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is less bullish on the safety of pipelines, with a 2019 report cataloging pipeline incidents between January 2010 and November 2018.
The NRDC study found that America’s vast pipeline network recorded more than 5,500 accidents during that period, leading to nearly 600 injuries, more than 125 fatalities, over 800 fires and almost 300 explosions.
The cumulative toll: more than $4 billion in damages and nearly 30,000 people evacuated from their homes.
The Western Gateway Pipeline outreach team told us that they haven’t made any final decisions, although someone put a lot of time into the website, lobbying Pima County, and presumably other local governments along the pipeline.
“The project is still in the evaluation stage, with a final investment decision expected later this year,” the team told us.
Changing course: Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham says it’s time to get rid of the city’s fare-free transit policy. He supported the policy when it began during the pandemic in 2020, but he’s spent the last 18 months trying to convince his colleagues to review the policy as reports mount of violent attacks on buses, Cunningham writes in an op-ed in the Tucson Sentinel.
“I supported it because I believed it would help working families, seniors, students, and people with disabilities. I believed public transportation should be accessible to everyone, regardless of income. Those were worthy goals, and I still believe they are,” Cunningham writes. “But leadership requires more than good intentions. It requires the willingness to evaluate results honestly and make changes when a policy is not producing the outcomes we hoped for.”
The circus is still in town: After complaints from neighbors, three YouTubers were arrested near Nancy Guthrie’s house, Michael Cooper reports for KOLD. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department was getting complaints about trespassing and blocking roadways, then one of the YouTubers was caught on video peeing behind their makeshift tent, which was a step too far.
Slippery slope: The TUSD Governing Board is now warning speakers at call to the public that they could be exposed to “personal legal liability,” which could have a chilling effect on free speech, the Arizona Daily Star’s Sierra Blaser reports. The warning from the board focuses on “making defamatory statements,” and Board Member Natalie Luna Rose says it’s meant to warn speakers who say nasty things about other speakers, not as a tool for “retaliation from the district.” Over at Amphitheater Public Schools, Blaser notes, the board’s policy is to bar speakers from commenting on any specific district employee or student.
For example?: In response to a lawsuit from the Pima County Republican Party that claims provisions in the state’s Elections Procedures Manual — such as a ban on wearing clothing meant to intimidate voters — violate the First Amendment, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says the Pima GOP couldn’t cite a single instance of a citizen’s rights being violated, Caitlin Sievers reports for the Arizona Mirror.
Going nuclear over data centers: Arizona lawmakers are pushing through a bill that would force county supervisors in rural counties (all of them except Pima and Maricopa) to allow small nuclear reactors, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. The language of SB1418 makes it pretty clear that it’s aimed at meeting electricity demand from data centers. GOP Rep. Walt Blackman hinted that he might break from his party and vote against the bill since it goes against the Republican principle of supporting local control.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of bills from so-called Republicans that do the opposite,” Blackman said. House Majority Leader Michael Carbone said overriding local control was fine, “we do it all the time.”
We probably shouldn’t be laughing at this, given that the fate of U.S. democracy is at stake, but are you seeing the absurdity playing out in Maricopa County right now?
It’s basically a circular firing squad among Republican officials. The county recorder, who played on election conspiracies to get elected, has been at war with the county supervisors, who are trying to avoid another round of 2020 election nonsense.
In just the past few weeks, Recorder Justin Heap threatened to have workers at ballot drop boxes arrested, which prompted the supervisors to call his bluff and say “arrest me first.”
Now, sheriff’s deputies are telling employees at the Recorder’s Office that they’re under criminal investigation for stealing vote tabulating machines.
And the county attorney, also a Republican, is pissed that Heap went out and hired the America First Legal Foundation (founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, the guy behind the mass deportation program) to represent him in court, when that’s the role of the county attorney.
And it’s not over. The way this is playing out, we’re bound to have round after round of shenanigans between now and the November election.
If you’re curious about the backstory of the disputes, the Arizona Agenda broke it all down for readers last week.