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Eversource decides it doesn't want to assume financial risks of natural-gas pipeline project
By adamg on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 12:27pm
The Boston Business Journal reports Eversource has pulled out of a regional pipeline-expansion project because of a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that consumers can't be forced to assume the financial risks of such work through rate surcharges.
The state's highest court ruled last week that if utilities want to expand the state's natural-gas supply to reduce price volatility for our gas-fed power plants, they'll have to pay for them themselves.
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Comments
Well...
Since Eversource pulled out of financing the natural gasoline, it looks as if the protests definitely had an affect.
Different Pipeline
The protests (if you are referring to the ones in W.Rox) were of a different pipeline. That one continues to be built.
Maybe now Eversource will fix the 20,000 gas leaks in Boston, which are mapped, would cost less than a $3bb pipeline and, if fixed, would supply us with as much natural gas as the pipeline would have (by saving it from floating away to pollute our air). But I guess you can't export that excess gas as LNG and reap windfall profits, so probably not...
National Grid, you mean
Except for part of Hyde Park, National Grid supplies natural gas in Boston (and it's their system that the aforementioned West Roxbury Lateral pipeline will connect to).
this has always confused me
This has always confused me...
National Grid ... key word there GRID, means power (to me at least)
In Chelsealand we have Eversource Electric and National Grid gas.
I just refer to them as their old names... KeySpan Gas and NStar Electric. Or if I wanna go back even further. Boston Edison Electric and Boston Gas.
Eversource does not supply
Eversource does not supply gas to Boston. That is National Grid.
Hyde Park
I live in Hyde Park and I get a gas bill from Eversource (Formerly NSTAR).
We just moved to a home on
We just moved to a home on the Rozzie Hyde Park line, the realtors insist it's Roslindale. Anyway it took several calls to both utilities to figure who serves our property. After initially brushing us off Eversource acknowledged the NSTAR sticker on our meter and agreed to bill us. Neighbors a few houses closer to Poplar are served by National Grid. Not that I should worry, but I'd feel better with a utility that specializes in gas.
Oops...My bad!
Sorry about that. Thanks for the heads up. I stand corrected.
So
We can expect electricity rates to fall finally, or will they pull an Enron and raise rates and create instabilities in the energy market to justify needed this expansion (which is mainly for export).
Unbelievable. This will allow
Unbelievable. This will allow continued gas shortages, which drive up electricity prices in the winter. When people are heating their houses with gas, the fuel is pulled away from electricity generation. Less supply, higher prices for what they can get. This is a great victory for the LNG companies, which bring in tankers from overseas. Which are full of higher-priced gas.
When the Boston streetcar system was privately owned, they wanted to raise the fare to pay for maintenance. The legislature - with voters who wanted their nickle fare - refused them the rate hike. As a result, the system fell apart, and had to be taken over by the government. Which couldn't raise fares, for the same reason. So the entire system turned into a toilet. But at least the greedy streetcar company didn't get their fare increase.
I See
You bought their PR hook line and sinker.
This is about export. We have unused LNG import terminals just sitting there, and part of the plan for these pipelines are to turn them into export facilities.
The state can't afford to let LNG utilities pull a Enron like caper on the Commonwealth. I'd like to see the state sponsor some indepedent reports on the energy outlook, as I bet itll come back very different than what Eversource claims.
Do you really believe that this was about supplying us?
This was about charging us for a pipeline being built to get fracking gas to maritime gas terminals for export to other places.
By your analogy, the street car system in this case would be built for European passenger service.
Weren't the streetcar systems
sabotaged very intentionally and directly, by the automotive industry? Not in Boston?
transit maintenance
Actually the govt did a fairly decent job of maintaining the system and expanding it from the take-over straight through Dukakis (granted these were also decades of people leaving the city and lower demand). Once the succession of Republican governors got in there (and Deval - what's the diff?) with the mantras of "Taxachusetts" and "reform before revenue," AND the boondoggle resource and trust-suck of the Big Dig hit, well you can see what we ended up with -- the Greenbush line to communities that didn't want it and Orange Line cars almost as old as me (the horror...the horror...).
Exporting LNG
Yes, it would be a terrible thing to export LNG and have stable electricity prices during the winter.
Pricing stability
I'll bet you a dunks prices will start to stabilize now that utilities can't pull one over on their customers.
Creating a crisis for the solution you already have is good for bussiness.