Kinder Morgan Signs Up New Customers for Portion of NED Pipeline
Kinder Morgan continues to fight an uphill battle to get its Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project accepted and approved. In March MDN noticed that Kinder had failed to sign up any new customers in the previous eight month period, with commitments remaining at 500,000 dekatherms per day, equivalent to 1/2 Bcf/d (see Kinder Morgan Fails to Sign Up New NED Customers in Last 8 Mos). In July the Kinder Morgan board committed to building the project–but in a scaled back form (see KM Board Approves Scaled-Back New England Pipeline for $3.3B). Most of the attention has been on the portion of the pipeline project that runs from Wright, NY to Dracut, MA–the section of the project Kinder calls “the Market Path.” Anti-fossil fuel nutters in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where the new pipeline would run, have staged various protests and publicity campaigns. Not much has been said about the portion of the project that will run from northeastern Pennsylvania (Susquehanna County) to Wright, NY (in Schoharie County)–the section Kinder calls “the Supply Path.” That is, not much has been said until now. Kinder announced on Tuesday they’ve landed new/unnamed customers to ship natural gas along the Supply Path portion of NED. Indeed, they’ve signed up 627,000 dekatherms per day (roughly 2/3 of a Bcf/d) for the Supply Path portion of NED…
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One New England town shows how to “do it right” when it comes to dealing with a big pipeline company like Kinder Morgan. As we’ve covered (endlessly), Kinder’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project will expand the mighty Tennessee Gas Pipeline to run across parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire before terminating near Boston. Anti-fossil fuel nutters demand the project be canceled–sentencing New Englanders to obscenely high gas and electric rates forever. One town–Amherst, NH–had concerns about the route and worked with Kinder Morgan to get the pipeline shifted to a route that works for them. This is how adults behave…
In early September MDN told you that the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) approved long-term contracts for three utilities–Berkshire Gas, National Grid and Columbia Gas–to buy natural gas supplies from Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline–if it gets built (see 
Finally! Some new takeaway capacity for Seneca Resources is about to become reality when they begin shipping Marcellus Shale gas from western Pennsylvania through Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) Niagara Expansion into western New York State where it will connect to the TransCanada Pipeline (in Niagara County, NY) and from there send the gas into Canada. In 2013 MDN brought you the good news that TGP would expand service on the pipeline northward (see 
In an attempt to make it easier for natural gas-fired electric generating plants to buy gas only when they actually need it, Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline has just launched a new service called PowerServe(TM). The new service is specifically targeted to electric plants in New England. Traditionally, electric generating plants have shied away from signing long-term contracts for natural gas because of the peaks and valleys in power generation. During the dead of winter, they need a lot of natural gas. In the summer, they don’t need nearly as much. TGP’s new PowerServe service is meant to give them a way to grab only what they need, when they need it. Part of the PowerServe service will be tied to a pipeline not yet built–TGP’s Northeast Energy Direct pipeline that will cross parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire…
In a shameless act of political pandering, the president of the Massachusetts State Senate, Stan Rosenberg (Democrat), ran his own version of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) scoping hearing. Such hearings, while meant to elicit useful information about where a pipeline should, and should not, run, usually devolve into freak shows by anti-drilling zealots who parade and preen before the cameras and microphones–making fools of themselves. We’ve seen it many times before. So Rosenberg, apparently not satisfied that there’s not a FERC hearing every week where anti-drilling zealots in Mass. can gripe and moan and complain, set up his own faux session. He “listened” to some 60 people complain about the proposed Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline. Stan says he’s going to hand deliver transcriptions of the entire sordid affair to FERC, personally…
In June MDN updated you on Kinder Morgan’s plans to repurpose part of the existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline that currently runs south to north, reversing the flow to send natural gas liquids (NGLs) southward (see 
Kinder Morgan has just released a study that they commissioned (paid for), but researched by the independent ICF International. The study, titled “New England Energy Market Outlook: Demand for Natural Gas Capacity and Impact of the Northeast Energy Direct Project” (full copy below), finds that New Englanders would have saved $3.7 billion in wholesale electricity costs during the 2013-2014 ‘Polar Vortex’ winter had the proposed Northeast Energy Direct Project (NED) been in service at the time. The study also finds the additional gas capacity that NED would provide will generate $2.1 billion to $2.8 billion in annual savings going forward for New England electric consumers, under normal weather conditions. Plus there are many other benefits (aside from cost savings) from building NED, including lower air pollution throughout New England…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has buckled to pressure from politicians to schedule yet another scoping hearing in New Hampshire (the third such hearing in tiny NH, the 14th overall), and extend the period for public comments, for the Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project that would bring much-needed supplies of abundant, cheap and clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas to New England (see 
Weeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth. Ripping clothes and sitting in sackcloth and ashes. That’s some of the reaction from lunatic anti-fossil fuelers in Massachusetts after the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) approved long-term contracts for three utilities–Berkshire Gas, National Grid and Columbia Gas–to buy natural gas supplies from the hated, evil Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline. That is, the three utilities will buy more gas from Kinder IF the pipeline ever gets built. We’re still a long way from backhoes digging up ground to lay new pipeline, but we’ve just taken a big step forward with this decision by the DPU. What’s next for the loons of Mass? Yep–you guessed it. They’re planning to take the DPU to court…
A dozen aging protesters (some of them former hippies) paced back and forth with apparently with nothing better to do, in front of an office building in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where Kinder Morgan has a small office. The protesters were there to demand that New Englanders continue to pay 4x what everyone else across the country pays for electricity, and to protest in favor of rolling blackouts in New England when electricity supplies dip because of high demand and lack of generating capacity, and to protest the availability of abundant, cheap, and clean-burning natural gas to heat their homes. Yep, they are stark, raving mad–and taken seriously by the liberal media in Massachusetts which covers this tiny minority of wackos as if they represent “everybody” in New England. The protesters, in their own words, told reporters why they oppose Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Direct pipeline that will bring cheap, abundant and clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas to Massachusetts and other New England states: because they hate all fossil fuels, including clean-burning natural gas…
Yet another delay for Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct project–an extension of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline from the shale fields of northeastern Pennsylvania through New York, into Massachusetts, then New Hampshire before ending near Boston. It is a $6 billion project with 177 miles of new (greenfield) pipeline construction meant to alleviate the severe shortage of natural gas in New England. Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the government agency in charge of permissioning the project, issued a memo stating they have extended the deadline for public comment on the plan. A new deadline has not yet been decided. The delay delights anti-fossil fuelers…
We have to chuckle. Anti-drillers are so predictable. As we’ve said going back as far as an event we attended in Binghamton when the former mayor of DISH, Texas, Calvin Tilman (in 2010), we observed that many in the audience are 60s hippies with a new cause in life–to oppose drilling/pipelines/fossil fuels in general (see