Trump Looks To Neutralize Pipeline Opponents

The White House is preparing measures that will reduce states’ powers over the approval or ban of new energy projects, notably oil and gas pipelines, Bloomberg reported last week, citing three unnamed sources in the know. The implications of such measures would be bad news for a state such as New York, which has already put the brakes on a natural gas pipeline, but they could be good news for consumers. Last week, FreightWaves.com reported that residents of the Northeastern states are being increasingly burdened by high electricity bills coupled with unreliable supplies, the root cause of which is the lack of enough natural gas pipeline capacity to bring in the fuel needed for power plants. The report followed an announcement by a regional utility, Con Edison, that it will stop taking on new customers in Westchester County on the grounds that “new demand for gas is reaching the limits of the current supplies to our service area.” In other words, the utility cannot supply electricity to all who need it because it cannot produce enough electricity to satisfy demand and the reason it cannot produce it is lack of sufficient gas supply. What’s more, New York is not the only state struggling with growing electricity demand and insufficient supply because of pipeline opposition on the political level, according to the FreightWaves.com report. All New England states are in the same position and even worse, author Henry Carmichael reports, citing a scientist from the Institute for Energy Research. “The New England states used to be dependent on coal, oil, nuclear and hydroelectricity. And they’ve shifted quickly to natural gas for generation, and they’ve shifted so fast that its caused huge draws of natural gas into the system [pipelines] without increasing infrastructure,” Dan Kish told Carmichael...MORE 

I hate to see any more authority taken away from the states.