American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2022 - 63

SpecialReport: Northeast Infrastructure
New England's Need
Expanding pipeline capacity to New
England is critical. In September, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
hosted a forum to discuss the state of
New England's gas and electric energy
grid. In anticipation, ISO New England
and the region's gas and electric distribution
companies issued a joint " problem
statement and call to action " to " help inform
the discussions " at that forum. This
statement notes the transition to a cleaner
energy future requires the region to reduce
its reliance on imported LNG.
The statement also observes that
until New England develops renewable
sources of generation and the related
long-duration resources needed to balance
variable production, it will remain
dependent on natural gas and imported
LNG to reliably provide heat and electricity.
" Without adequate gas, the region
may not be able to meet the demand
for home heating and electricity-and,
when reliability suffers, the clean energy
transition suffers. "
That news should not shock anyone,
although it seemed to surprise one FERC
commissioner. After the forum, Commissioner
Allison Clements tweeted she was
" struck by how long this conversation has
been going on, " and said FERC should
chart a course toward " actionable solutions. "
New England's lack of gas supply may
FIGURE 1
Canceled Pipeline Projects
Constitution Pipeline
Northern Access 2016
Atlantic Coast Pipeline
PennEast
Mountain Valley Pipeline
Northeast Supply Enhancement
MVP Southgate
2013
2014
2015
2016
Application Start
NOVEMBER 2022 63
2017
2018
2019
be most directly linked to one day in
June 2013 when Constitution Pipeline
filed its application to build a 650,000
dekatherm/day project from the Marcellus
Shale to New England. That project-
which was never built-was the first of
many FERC-approved pipelines that ultimately
would be blocked by opposition
groups intent on " keeping gas in the
ground " by preventing it from reaching
demand centers.
In a curiously similar sentiment,
FERC-particularly Commissioner
Clements and Chairman Richard Glick-
has sought to become an environmental
regulator, intent on rejecting any pipeline
expansion solely because the transported
gas' end-use will emit greenhouse gases.
This position was most forcefully asserted
in two policies FERC issued in February
and quickly withdrew in March following
substantial blowback from Congress.
For now, there appears to be a working
majority, including the two Republicans
and other Democrat, Commissioner Willie
L. Phillips. These three commissioners'
records show they will continue to approve
projects based on the policy in place before
February 2022. But even under that policy,
first adopted in 1999, pipeline developers
may need to get creative to maximize
their projects' chances of completion.
While the Constitution project is a
poster child for FERC-approved pipelines
that have been canceled in response to
opposition, it is not alone. Since its application
was filed in 2013, the other projects
shown in Figure 1 met a similar fate.
The Clean Water Act
The tactics used to stop the unsuccessful
pipeline projects varied. A common one
relates to the Clean Water Act, which
gives each state the right to review any
project crossing its wetlands and waterbodies
to determine whether the proposed
activity will violate its established water
quality standards. New York and New
Jersey have used these reviews as both a
delaying tactic-by extending the review
period beyond the one-year limit imposed
in the statute-and as grounds to deny an
approved project by finding it will be in
violation.
Opposition groups similarly have challenged
states' decisions to approve projects
by claiming the approval process fails to
comply with the state's procedures or
improperly deems the project compliant.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.V., included
language to correct some of these issues
in a permitting reform bill he proposed,
titled the Energy Independence and Security
Act of 2022. However, that provision was
struck from a version proposed as a rider
to a must-pass bill for funding the government
that passed in September. Purportedly,
negotiations continue to include
some version of the bill as a rider to the
defense appropriations bill, which needs
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