By Robert Walton
Massachusetts lawmakers (click here) are considering a pair of bills that would strengthen gas project reviews and make it explicitly illegal to charge electric ratepayers to develop gas infrastructure.
Senate Bill 1855 says the DPU "shall not approve any contract for the purchase of gas, gas pipeline capacity or liquefied gas storage where any contract costs could be recoverable from the ratepayers if such contract requires any construction or expansion of interstate gas infrastructure."
"In paying a surcharge on their utility bills to build the pipeline, ratepayers are taking away the risk of the electric company's business decision to build the pipeline whether it is profitable or not," the lawmaker letter, reportedly signed by 125 legislators, reads. "This shields the electric companies from risk and subsidizes the corporate bottom line."
Senate Bill 1847 would allow a wider range of stakeholders to participate in pipeline cases at the DPU and would allow groups of 10 or more customers to participate with full intervenor status....
Those that oppose the growth of alternative energy claim the energy will become too expensive. When taking assessment of the age of the gas pipeline infrastructure in the cities and towns of the USA, carbon based energy is no longer cheap.
There may not be a pipeline tax, but, there will be energy cost increases.
February 12, 2018
By Shira Schoeberg
Boston -- A Massachusetts Senate committee (click here) has released a bill that reads like a wish-list for clean energy advocates.
The bill sets more ambitious environmental and regulatory standards, bans fracking in Massachusetts, prohibits residents from being taxed for new natural gas pipelines, eliminates a cap on reimbursements for solar projects and sets the stage for carbon pricing.
"We believe this act, if it is enacted, will protect our public health here in the commonwealth, create literally thousands upon thousands of new jobs in the commonwealth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially," said Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change....
Bill S. 2302 (click here)
Seven months later this happens. Shortly before this occurred there was an announcement by the company it was going to be laying new gas pipelines. It is not negligence that caused his pipeline explosion. It was not an old infrastructure that caused this explosion. This pipeline delivered 12 times the pressure. Not a degree up or 2 or 3 times the pressure, but, 12 times the pressure that the infrastructure could contain. That was not an accident.
September 19, 2018
By Gregory Korte
The pressure in the natural gas pipelines (click here) under three Massachusetts communities spiked to 12 times their normal level last week, just before the explosions and fires that destroyed dozens of homes and killed an 18-year-old man, according to Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.
The Massachusetts Democrats were briefed on the explosions in and around Lawrence by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating.
Markey and Warren are demanding answers from Columbia Gas and its parent company about the utility's response to the pressure readings....
Boston -- A Massachusetts Senate committee (click here) has released a bill that reads like a wish-list for clean energy advocates.
The bill sets more ambitious environmental and regulatory standards, bans fracking in Massachusetts, prohibits residents from being taxed for new natural gas pipelines, eliminates a cap on reimbursements for solar projects and sets the stage for carbon pricing.
"We believe this act, if it is enacted, will protect our public health here in the commonwealth, create literally thousands upon thousands of new jobs in the commonwealth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially," said Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change....
Bill S. 2302 (click here)
Seven months later this happens. Shortly before this occurred there was an announcement by the company it was going to be laying new gas pipelines. It is not negligence that caused his pipeline explosion. It was not an old infrastructure that caused this explosion. This pipeline delivered 12 times the pressure. Not a degree up or 2 or 3 times the pressure, but, 12 times the pressure that the infrastructure could contain. That was not an accident.
September 19, 2018
By Gregory Korte
The pressure in the natural gas pipelines (click here) under three Massachusetts communities spiked to 12 times their normal level last week, just before the explosions and fires that destroyed dozens of homes and killed an 18-year-old man, according to Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.
The Massachusetts Democrats were briefed on the explosions in and around Lawrence by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating.
Markey and Warren are demanding answers from Columbia Gas and its parent company about the utility's response to the pressure readings....
