Still more evidence that new natural gas pipelines are an unneeded boondoggle.
Kathryn R. Eiseman, Commonwealth Magazine, 20 January 2015,
New gas pipelines can be avoided:
Back-up fuel incentives are the way to go,
LAST WINTER’S NATURAL gas price spikes, and resultant electric rate
hikes, continue to be used to justify the push for massive expansion
of gas infrastructure. Yet a successful program to incentivize New
England’s power generators to contract for back-up fuel for this
winter undermines the argument for more pipelines. This winter’s
lower wholesale gas and electric prices indicate that the rate hikes
themselves could have been avoided had such measures been more fully
implemented for the 2013-2014 winter.
Measures like contracting to buy gas from peak load plants that sometimes sat idle last winter.
And measures like storing gas when it’s cheap to use in the winter.
In fact, ISO-NE intentionally excluded LNG storage incentives from
last winter’s winter reliability program,
telling the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
that gas-market-related solutions “would
lower gas prices and send the wrong signal about the relative
scarcity of natural gas. These lower prices would also be reflected
in the electricity market.” In other words, allowing prices to
rise would help convince the public Continue reading New England doesn’t need more gas pipelines: stockpile instead →
