Soon after announcing a reduction in the scope of its Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project, Kinder Morgan has scheduled five additional informational open houses in New Hampshire.
The energy infrastructure company said in a press release the meetings were scheduled as part of its commitment to engaging in an open and public dialogue, engaging all interested stakeholders and ensuring numerous opportunities to learn more about the project.
Kinder Morgan announced last month its subsidiary, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, will proceed with a 30-inch-diameter pipeline from Wright, N.Y., to Dracut, Mass. The pipeline was originally proposed and most recently presented in public meetings as a 36-inch-diameter pipeline.
Kinder Morgan maintains the NED project will serve the Northeast and New England’s identified future market needs for natural gas.
According to the independent electricity system operator ISO New England, New Englanders paid over $7 billion more for electricity during the winters of 2013-2014 than what they paid for electricity during the winter of 2011-2012, largely as a result of the lack of pipeline capacity servicing the region.
Independent studies have concluded that the New England region will require 2 Bcf/d (Billion Cubic Feet Per Day) of gas capacity over the coming years, Kinder Morgan wrote in a press release, and said NED is indispensable to meet these existing and future supply requirements.
Kinder Morgan maintains that NED will help to lower natural gas and electricity costs by providing additional scalable transportation capacity attached to low cost, nearby domestic and abundant natural gas that is already available to and benefiting other regions of the United States.
To date, Kinder Morgan has held five open houses and 20 public town presentations in New Hampshire to discuss the pipeline project, which would cut through about 2.5 miles of property in Londonderry.
In addition to Kinder Morgan’s open house events, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been holding public scoping meetings in New Hampshire and Massachusetts since announcing it was beginning the process of preparing an environmental impact statement for the proposed NED project. The most recent meeting was to be held Tuesday, Aug. 11, in Dracut, Mass.
Cherylann Pierce of Londonderry, who is working to help organize opposition to the new pipeline in southern New Hampshire, called on all New Hampshire residents to attend the remaining FERC scoping meetings in Massachusetts.
Pipeline Awareness, a group that has rallied against the project in northern New England, hoped to have 350 people at the scoping meeting to speak out against the project.
“We are hoping for all of us impacted, whether in New Hampshire or Massachusetts, to show solidarity for each other,” Pierce said in an email. “I am going to request the New Hampshire Coalition to invite the Massachusetts towns affected – Dracut, Danvers, Tewksbury – to join the Coalition. We need to all be in this together.”
In addition to the scoping meeting on Aug. 11, the FERC was scheduled to hold a scoping meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. at Lunenburg High School in Lunenburg, Mass., both after Londonderry Times press time.
Kinder Morgan’s additional open house events are scheduled on Sept. 9 at Mascenic High School in New Ipswich; Sept. 10 at the Fitzwilliam Veterans of Foreign Wars in Fitzwilliam; Sept. 15 at Hampshire Hills in Milford; Sept. 16 at Rockingham Park in Salem; and Sept. 17 at the Merrimack American Legion in Merrimack.
For more information about the NED project, including a schedule of open houses, visit Kinder Morgan’s New Hampshire-specific website for the project at energymattersnh.com.
To contact Pierce about efforts in Londonderry and southern New Hampshire, such as letter writing to the FERC, email her at cherylannbp56@gmail.com.
For more information about opposition to the pipeline, visit nhpipelineawareness.org.