Massachusetts is throwing up more roadblocks and hoops in order to slow down (stop?) a Kinder Morgan project to expand capacity of its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) in the Springfield, Ma. area. Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and Holyoke Gas and Electric have both requested more natural gas from TGP. They need it, desperately. Kinder Morgan’s solution is to expand the delivery capability of the pipeline in the region by adding a minuscule 2.1 miles of new looping pipeline (buried next to an existing TGP pipe), upgrading a compressor station, and building a new connection, called a delivery gate. It’s a minimal project, and yet Massachusetts has just ruled Kinder will have to conduct a months (years?) long, full-blown environmental impact statement before they can do the work. Which we find strange. TGP is a federal, not state, regulated pipeline. TGP plans to file an application for the project, known as the “261 Upgrade Project” (named after Compressor Station 261), with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in September. Massachusetts does not have jurisdiction over the building of the project! Yet they are demanding an environmental impact study. If we were TGP, we’d tell Mass. to get lost…
Massachusetts is throwing up more roadblocks and hoops in order to slow down (stop?) a Kinder Morgan project to expand capacity of its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) in the Springfield, Ma. area. Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and Holyoke Gas and Electric have both requested more natural gas from TGP. They need it, desperately. Kinder Morgan’s solution is to expand the delivery capability of the pipeline in the region by adding a minuscule 2.1 miles of new looping pipeline (buried next to an existing TGP pipe), upgrading a compressor station, and building a new connection, called a delivery gate. It’s a minimal project, and yet Massachusetts has just ruled Kinder will have to conduct a months (years?) long, full-blown environmental impact statement before they can do the work. Which we find strange. TGP is a federal, not state, regulated pipeline. TGP plans to file an application for the project, known as the “261 Upgrade Project” (named after Compressor Station 261), with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in September. Massachusetts does not have jurisdiction over the building of the project! Yet they are demanding an environmental impact study. If we were TGP, we’d tell Mass. to get lost…