AG: Pipeline Proposal Needs Vetting

AG: Pipeline Proposal Needs Vetting
Has study underway on the need for new natural gas line
 
Talking points
188-mile pipeline to go from Pennsylvania to Mass­achusetts
Initial plan had route going through Winchen­don, but it was moved into N.H. after opposition
Debate persists on need for more gas for electric power plants in peak times

Damien Fisher
News Staff Writer

BOSTON  The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is urging caution as Kinder Morgan’s proposed natural gas pipeline project moves through the federal regulatory process.

“It is vitally important that any decision about the (pipeline) project be the product of a thorough and transparent process and be based on accurate data and a realistic assessment of need,” wrote Rebecca Tepper, chief of the Attorney General’s Energy and Telecommunications Division, in a letter to members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now considering the pipeline project.

Kinder Morgan, a Tennessee-based company, plans to build a 188-mile natural gas pipeline going through Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The project garnered enough opposition for Kinder Morgan to reroute about 70 miles of the pipeline to go through parts of New Hampshire rather than through North Central Massachusetts as originally planned.

Ms. Tepper’s letter states that the Attorney General’s Office is currently undertaking a study of the project and energy needs, specifically whether more natural gas capacity is needed to maintain the state’s electricity reliability. She asked that the commission wait for the findings of this report before making any decisions on Kinder Morgan’s permit requests.

The Attorney General’s Office has tried to get the Massachusetts Public Utilities Department to also take a slow approach to the project, without success. Ms. Tepper writes that her office wanted all parties to be able to have a say in the proceedings.

“We asked for a transparent process and a procedural schedule that would have allowed time for the parties and the public to meaningfully consider, analyze, and testify about (Kinder Morgan’s) petitions,” Ms. Tepper wrote. “Instead, (the Department of Public Utilities) expedited the procedural schedule in a manner that did not reflect the ... agreement’s lasting consequences for Massachusetts rate-payers.”

The project continues to meet opposition even after Kinder Morgan moved the pipeline. Winchendon residents opposed the project, and when the pipeline plan moved to go through neighboring Rindge, New Hampshire, residents and officials in that town moved to oppose the plan.

This spring, Rindge voters said yes to three articles meant to block the project; one addressing concerns for private property rights and the fear the company would take land by eminent domain, one addressing concerns that the pipeline will adversely impact the environment, and the third that would refuse the company the right to survey any town-owned land, especially the Converse Meadows conservation area.

The Attorney General’s Office will continue to monitor and take part in the permitting process as the pipeline project makes its way through the FERC proceedings, Ms. Tepper wrote. The attorney general’s study is due out at the end of October.