Energy News for week ending March 31, 2017

Happy snowy Friday afternoon.

In this week’s energy news, Penn Energy citing an AP story reports that National Grid is proposing a transmission project that would bring up to 1,200 megawatts of clean energy from Canada to the New England power grid and run along existing lines in Vermont and New Hampshire. The project, Granite State Power Link, would primarily serve customers in Massachusetts, has two segments, and would create more than 2,000 construction jobs.

According to the Concord Monitor, opponents of the Northern Pass project, when hearing about the Granite State Power Link project said, “What took so long?” However, the story notes that it doesn’t mean Grid is going to get a warm welcome for their proposal. It will be interesting to watch this all play out.

Speaking of Northern Pass, in addition to the new competition, the Union Leader reports that Eversource learned on Monday that the NH PUC ruled against a petition the company filed last June seeking approval of a proposed 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Hydro Renewable Energy (Northern Pass), after determining the proposal is “inconsistent with New Hampshire law.”

Heading to southern New England, even though most people think the Cape Wind project is long dead (they don’t even respond for comment), the Cape Cod Times reports that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, following a court order, issued a supplemental environmental impact statement on Thursday for public comment. Journalist Mary Ann Bragg notes that despite the renewed effort to fix the environmental impact statement, the 16-year-old project’s fate remains in question if not outright decided, even among those who previously supported it. “It is not on our radar,” said Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Offshore Wind Director William White. “We do not believe that Cape Wind is a project that is moving forward.”

And lastly, big kudos and congratulations to our good friends at Columbia Gas whose parent company, NiSource, Inc., was (for the sixth consecutive year) designated as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. Wicked Local Westborough reports that Ethisphere honors those companies who recognize their role in society to influence and drive positive change, consider the impact of their actions on their employees, investors, customers and other key stakeholders and use their values and culture as an underpinning to the decisions they make every day.

Have a great weekend.

Natural Gas/Pipeline

Major Natural Gas Leak Contained In Downtown Providence, Rhode Island Public Radio

Rehoboth to Vote April 3 on Gas Compressor Station, ecoRI news

‘It looks like a tornado went through:’ Danvers residents upset over pipeline work, My Fox Boston

Maryland lawmakers vote to ban fracking, The Hill

Maryland Ban Shows Fracking is Not a Partisan Issue, Common Dreams

Report shows Pennsylvania fracking companies paying few fines for environmental infractions, PGH City Paper

Eversource Energy spending $50M this year on pipe replacement in Connecticut, New Haven Register

Renewable Energy

Cape Wind project review to be revised, Cape Cod Times

State approves solar array that will be Vermont’s largest, vtdigger.org