Kinder Morgan

More Tennessee Gas Pipeline – Northeast Energy Direct (NED) news today. Aside from today’s companion story today that Kinder Morgan (KM) is seriously considering a route change for the pipeline–away from Massachusetts and into New Hampshire–a second bit of important news. KM has cut a deal with Canadian-based utility company Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. to invest in the NED project. KM is selling off up to a 10% ownership in the NED project to Algonquin in return for an investment of up to $400 million…
Read More “KM Takes on Minority Partner in Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline”

Right now natural gas in Japan is costing around $18 per thousand cubic feet. All gas in Japan is imported. In New England? Gas futures trading for January 2015–the price utilities and others will pay based on contracts for January–is $19 per thousand cubic feet. New England is located just a few hundred miles from the most abundant source of natural gas on earth–the Marcellus Shale–where sometimes the price of gas goes below $2 per thousand cubic feet. What in the world is going on? Lack of pipelines to bring the gas from the Marcellus to New England. With many people on fixed incomes facing a jump of $40 per month or more in higher electricity prices (electricity in New England is largely created by natural gas-powered plants), it seems a bit silly to oppose projects like Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, no?…
Read More “The Urgent Case for Gas Pipelines in New England”

Last week MDN told you that both Massachusetts U.S Senators–Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren–have turned against Kinder Morgan and their planned expansion of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline across the state (see Both Mass. Senators Oppose TGP Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline). Both Senators are, unsurprisingly, Democrats. So it was with some surprise that we noticed a schism among the Democrats on the pipeline. The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is calling comments by Markey and Warren to FERC “a vulgar attempt to politicize our nation’s energy regulatory agencies.” Them’s fightin’ words–especially coming from a normally Democrat stronghold (a labor union). Here’s some even stronger words from LIUNA…
Read More “Union Calls Sen. Markey/Warren Pipeline Opposition “Vulgar””

Looks like Kinder Morgan will continue to have an uphill battle to get permission to build an extension to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline that crosses the state of Massachusetts to bring cheap Marcellus gas to New England. When the $6 billion project that would upgrade TGP in many states and build 177 miles of new pipe across Massachusetts was announced earlier this year, we were mystified that the response was muted to mildly positive (see Reaction to TGP’s Planned Pipeline Across Massachusetts). It took a few months, but the anti-drillers eventually crawled out of the woodwork to begin bashing away at the project (see NIMBYism Becomes NOMEism in MA Over Kinder Gas Pipeline). Now, both U.S. Senators from Massachusetts, along with other leading state Democrat politicians, are lining up against what is now called the TGP Northeast Energy Direct project…
Read More “Both Mass. Senators Oppose TGP Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline”

Here’s an interesting move by Kinder Morgan. On Wednesday, KM issued a press release (below) that they’ve filed an “historic” proposal with the Maine Public Utilities Commission offering the State of Maine a long-term contract for natural gas pipeline capacity with the goal of lowering overall energy costs for Maine consumers. This is the same pipeline, an expansion of the mightly Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP), that KM plans to build across the state of Massachusetts. According to the KM proposal, Maine can purchase up to 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the new pipeline, when/if built, and virtually solve the problem of high electric and gas rates in Maine forevermore. KM already has 63% of the expanded TGP pipeline capacity spoken for (see Kinder Signs up New Customers for MA Pipeline, 63% of Capacity). Looks like they’re trying to fill the rest of the dance card by getting Maine (and a few others) on board. KM’s announcement on Wednesday also included a notice that they’ve done a pre-filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the Pennsylvania portion of the Northeast Energy Direct project, as the pipeline expansion project is called…
Read More “Kinder Morgan Sweet Talks Maine to Support Mass. Pipeline”