https://globalnews.ca/news/6590708/constitution-pipeline-natural-gas-usa-abandoned/
[Dominoes. The important words from this article are: "economically
unfeasible".]
Costs, delays scuttle $1B U.S. pipeline venture
By Mary Esch The Associated Press
Posted February 24, 2020
The nearly USD $1-billion Constitution Pipeline project, which had been
designed to take natural gas from Pennsylvania’s shale gas fields to
metropolitan New York and New England, has been abandoned after years of
legal regulatory challenges made it economically unfeasible, a
spokesperson for project partner Duke Energy said Monday.
==============
“Although Constitution did receive positive outcomes in recent court
proceedings and permit applications, the economics associated with this
greenfield project have since changed in such a way that they no longer
justify investment,” Duke spokesperson Tammie McGee said by email.
==============
Duke is one of four project partners. The principal partner is The
Williams Cos., based in Tulsa, Okla. Others are Houston-based Cabot Oil
and Gas and Calgary-based AltaGas.
Williams, which has a 41 per cent stake, said in its annual report last
week that the Constitution project would suffer a 2019 loss of USD $354
million.
Since it was proposed in 2013 at a projected cost under USD $700
million, delays and legal challenges have driven the costs up by nearly
40 per cent. After the project won Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
approval in 2014, New York regulators refused to issue critical water
quality permits, citing concerns about danger to wetlands and stream
crossings.
“This pipeline would have carried fracked natural gas across 251 water
bodies, including 89 trout spawning streams, and through many unique and
sensitive ecological areas such as old-growth forest and undisturbed
springs, which provide vital habitat and are key to local ecosystems,”
Richard Webster, director of legal programs for the environmental group
Riverkeeper, said in a statement.
Riverkeeper and other environmental groups have fought the project in
courts.
“Constitution’s investors just confirmed what we have been saying for
the past eight years — there is no need for this project,” said Anne
Marie Garti, an environmental attorney and founding member of Stop the
Pipeline.
Landowners will now seek to reverse the eminent domain that the
regulatory commission had imposed to take property for the pipeline,
Garti said.
=============
“At this critical moment for our climate, we cannot afford unnecessary
fossil fuel projects that will lead to more fracking and exacerbate our
climate crisis,” Earthjustice lawyer Moneen Nasmith said in a written
statement.
=============
The Williams Cos. said in a statement that its existing pipeline network
and planned expansions offer a much better investment return than new
projects like Constitution that are impacted by an uncertain regulatory
framework.
“Natural gas remains a critical part of our country’s clean energy
future, and Williams is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing
demand for natural gas as a reliable, low cost and clean alternative for
power generation fuel, heating oil and diesel,” the pipeline giant said.
Environmental activists continue to fight another nearly USD $1 billion
Williams project, the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, which would
extend an existing pipeline to carry natural gas from Pennsylvania
through New Jersey to New York City and Long Island. New York and New
Jersey regulators have previously denied permits but allowed Williams to
reapply.
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