Energy News for week ending February 8, 2019

Compressor Station Opposition | FERC Twitter Spat | Waste for Good

Hi all. Happy Friday afternoon.

Given that so much has been written about the Green New Deal, we’re going to focus on a few other stories today.

The compressor station controversy in Weymouth continues to grow since it received approval on its air quality permit. From sit-ins at the Governor’s office to protests at the State House, this is a story that keeps on going. The Patriot Ledger reports that, “A group of physicians is challenging the findings of a state-ordered report on Weymouth’s proposed 7,700- horsepower natural-gas compressor station, arguing that the facility would pose “an unacceptable health risk to the surrounding community.” Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility released a report Thursday rejecting the findings of a health-impact assessment that the Metropolitan Area Planning Council conducted on the compressor station proposed by Algonquin, a subsidiary of Spectra Energy-Enbridge. The report, released last month, concluded that the facility would be unlikely to affect health and noise in the area…” To add further to the controversy, WBUR reports that “Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) Executive Director Marc Draisen told WBUR that his agency does not support construction of the compressor station in North Weymouth, citing concerns about climate resilience and public safety. The surprising comments come about a month after the MAPC released its Health Impact Assessment (HIA) concluding that emissions from the compressor station are ‘not likely to cause health effects’ to the surrounding community.”

Considering this guy was nominated by Donald Trump, it’s hard to believe he finds anything on Twitter surprising. From Bloomberg, “The top U.S. energy regulator is chastising his colleagues in a very public Twitter dispute that shines a light on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s inner workings. ‘I do not discuss the commission’s internal deliberations with the public,’ FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said Tuesday on Twitter. ‘Doing so would be highly inappropriate.’ Chatterjee was responding to an earlier tweet from the agency’s two Democratic commissioners. Richard Glick and Cheryl LaFleur said they were ‘disappointed that the commission failed to act’ on an offshore wind project’s request for an important waiver.” Considering what else comes out of Washington, their tweets seemed pretty tame to me.

Speaking of garbage, Utility Dive brings us a story of a local company doing something positive with food waste. “Up a steep dirt road in Haverhill, Massachusetts, past a set of old farm buildings, sits one of the newest anaerobic digesters in the country. It’s the fourth facility of its kind from Vanguard Renewables, with many more on the way…Vanguard’s ‘farm-powered’ model is designed to come with automatic community benefits. While Hanselman said the six-year-old company’s original plan was to focus on energy production, their scope has since expanded to include much more. A small adjacent building contains a 1 MW engine capable of generating up to 7,700 MWh of electricity per year from the resulting methane. In addition to a 20-year power purchase agreement with the city of Haverhill, Vanguard is providing free heat to the multigenerational family business — Crescent Farms — that hosts it on their land. The AD facility also handles all of their manure, creates enough liquid fertilizer for them to swear off synthetic material entirely and makes an animal bedding byproduct that has reportedly led to higher quality milk yields among the cows.”

That’s it for this week’s recap. Have a great weekend!

Natural Gas/Oil/Pipeline/Drilling

Doctors’ group challenges report on Weymouth compressor station, Patriot Ledger

The Fight Against A Gas Line Project In Weymouth Is Fought Every Day In Charlie Baker’s Lobby, WGBH

Proposed Weymouth Compressor Station Draws More Opposition, WBUR

Columbia Gas Fined $75,000 For Spikes In Pipeline Pressure Years Before Merrimack Valley Explosions, WBUR

Senate panel gets look at bill that would ban new oil and gas pipelines, VT Digger

Proposed $700M Killingly power plant clears key hurdle, Hartford Business Journal

Nearly 200 National Grid customers in Cranston affected by gas main break, WJAR

Aquidneck Island gas emergency causes 300 to seek unemployment benefits, Providence Business News

5 Newport restaurants sue National Grid, Enbridge over gas outage, Providence Journal

United States : Raimondo Discusses Relief Efforts for Newport County Gas Customers, MarketWatch