For a complete and thorough coverage of this issue, please visit No Fracked Gas In Mass (A program of Berkshire Environmental Action Team).
May 24, 2016. Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project is dead, at least for now. Kinder Morgan’s subsidiary, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a withdrawal of its certificate application. Our battle to stop the Connecticut Expansion pipeline in South County continues.
The deadline to intervene in the Northeast Energy Direct filing with FERC is January 6th, 2016. Our No Fracked Gas site has a great “how to” page!
Northeast Energy Direct (NED) This new fracked gas pipeline is now proposed to enter Massachusetts in the town of Hancock. Originally Kinder Morgan (parent company of Tennessee Gas) had planned for the pipeline to enter in Richmond, but they changed their plans. Of course, they may change again. From Hancock the proposed pipeline would travel across western Massachusetts, then up into New Hampshire, back down into Massachusetts, and then to a natural gas hub in Dracut, Massachusetts. The proposed pipeline would cut through forests and across waterways and wetlands, would have a diameter of from 30 to 36 inches, and would carry approximately 2.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day under a pressure of up to 1,460 pounds per square inch*(for context, the entire Marcellus shale bed produces only 10 billion cubic feet per day). The project is proposed to come online in November of 2018.
For the latest information on the opposition to this pipeline and what you can do to help stop it, please visit No Fracked Gas in Mass.
September 15, 2014 – Tennessee Gas Pipeline company applied to Pre-File with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). You can view the Pre-Filing documents online. Go to FERC.gov. Click on the Documents & Filings tab, scroll down to e-Library. In the e-Library, click on General Search. Scroll down to Docket No. and fill in PF14-22. This will bring up the documents filed thus far. There are maps that are much more detailed than we had access to previously. October 2, 2014 – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accepted TGP’s application to pre-file
Click here for a pdf of TGP’s Public Participation Plan.
TGP plans to hold approximately twelve open houses between Wright, NY and Dracut, MA. These are happening through April 2015 – about two months after TGP thought they would be done with Open houses. Kinder Morgan cannot answer specific questions at these Open Houses that BEAT feels they should have to answer. We request that new open houses be held once we can get answers to:
– Where do you plan to cross this river, or that drinking water aquifer, or this lake?
– Where will you locate the compressor station that you say might be in Windsor?
– How be a staging area will you need and where will it be located for work in my area?
We feel these are pretty basic questions that should have answers by now.
In addition, we would like to see photos of compressor stations that are as large as the ones TGP is proposing to build in Windsor. As far as we can tell, Kinder Morgan/TGP has never build a compressor station nearly as large, and we can’t find a compressor station that size on the east coast.
Kinder Morgan’s toll-free telephone number (844) 277-1047, for Project, and
dedicated email address, nedinfo@kindermorgan.com.
Click here for more on how to navigate the FERC site.
BEAT and No Fracked Gas in Mass have been going around the state (and beyond) giving presentations about the fracked gas pipelines that are proposed to bring more fracked gas into New England. BEAT’s presentation focuses on why fracked gas is NOT clean, won’t be cheap, won’t be reliable, and why we DO NOT NEED IT! No Fracked Gas in Mass focuses on the dangers of fracked gas and fracked gas pipelines as well as what individuals can do to fight these proposed pipelines.
For how to take action – see our Act Now! page.
You can view some of our, in person, presentations on the No Fracked Gas information clearinghouse website.
(Skip to the latest information on the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline or the Connecticut Expansion pipeline.)
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
I think we have hit the “then they fight you” stage – a new “consumer advocate” group is really a bunch of fracked gas industry insiders [off-site link].
Background:
BEAT learned early about the Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s proposal to build a natural gas pipeline “Northeast Energy Direct” across Massachusetts from Richmond to Dracut and another pipeline expansion in Sandisfield and Agawam (with a pipeyard for building the pipeline in Tyringham). Click here to learn more about the proposed projects.
We were the first to speak out publicly, and soon offered fiscal sponsorship and a web presence to the newly forming citizen groups MassPLAN and No Fracked Gas In Mass. (Check their websites for the latest news and events about the fight to stop the pipeline.)
We have so far spoken on this issue in more than 20 towns and cities throughout the Berkshires, across the state, and into nearby New York, always by invitation. We have met with local, county, state, and federal representatives, and have consulted with state and national environmental and legal organizations. (Here is a partial list of BEAT’s pipeline-related activities since February.)
We believe that there is no need for these pipelines, that the price of the gas will not stay low, that most of the natural gas coming through the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline will be exported to Europe and/or Asia, and that there are safer, greener, and less costly alternatives that are being ignored by industry and industry-friendly regulators.
Add to all those problems, the fact that natural gas may be worse for the climate than coal, not to mention that adding more fossil fuel infrastructure may detract from investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and we would be heading in the very wrong direction.
TAKE ACTION!: Here is what you can do to take action now.
Here are BEAT’s 9/4/2014 comments to FERC regarding the CT Expansion. (large pdf)
About FERC and the FERC Process (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
* Pressure figure is from Kinder Morgan representative speaking at public meeting in Richmond, MA.