Despite adversaries’ strong opposition to a proposed 600-mile mid-Atlantic natural-gas pipeline on environmental, eminent domain and conflict-of-interest grounds, project developers late last month hired a four-firm team to build the estimated $5-billion project.
A regulatory regime that facilitates pipeline construction with insufficient assessment of need is driving overbuilding that “puts ratepayers at risk of paying for excess capacity, landowners at risk of sacrificing property to unnecessary projects and investors at risk of loss if shipping contracts are not renewed and pipelines are underused,” according to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The backers of a proposed pipeline to transport natural gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale region through New York state say they are “steadfastly committed” to building the pipeline, despite the April 22 decision by the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation to deny a permit for the project.
EmberClear Corp., a Calgary, Alberta-based energy developer, said on Sept. 19 that it expects to begin construction on a 300-MW natural-gas-fired generation project west of Allentown, Pa.
As New York intensifies its debate over whether to employ hydraulic fracturing techniques to recover shale-gas deposits in the Marcellus shale formation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is sticking to his pledge to "let the science and the facts" determine if the state' should lift a two-year moratorium on fracking.
