Energy News for week ending September 20, 2019

Added Costs | Gas Battle in NY | Menu Change

Happy glorious Friday afternoon. Here are the news highlights for this week.

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette, “A new elementary school that produces as much energy as it uses, mandated by the town’s net-zero energy bylaw, would add millions of dollars to the cost of the building, according to a summary of a 600-page report presented to the School Committee and Town Council this week. If the town proceeds with a new $64 million, 85,000-square-foot replacement for the aging Fort River School, solar panels alone would add $6.4 million to the project cost, while extensive energy improvements, in combination with the solar panels, would add $7.7 million, architect Ryszard Szczypek told the elected panels Tuesday…The consultants note that these costs are not out of line with the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s expectations for energy-efficient buildings that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

We’ve included stories about this next topic in past issues of the Northeast Energy News but haven’t highlighted it. Given it’s an ongoing matter we’re calling it out this week. From Crain’s NY Business, “National Grid didn’t get the pipeline it wanted, so now the utility is giving its customers the shaft, Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued Wednesday. The governor told reporters at an unrelated press conference that something smelled funny about the natural gas supplier’s refusal to add new accounts, or to reconnect old ones, in the months after his administration denied a permit to the proposed Williams pipeline. Cuomo has already directed his Public Service Commission to investigate the validity of National Grid’s claims that it lacks the capacity to provide gas to either old or new customers…National Grid did not respond directly to the governor’s remarks, except to state that it was working to illustrate the pipeline’s necessity to his commission.”

We move to Maine for our next story from the Portland Press Herald, “As Maine’s climate warms, what’s on the menu likely will change. Chefs and scientists offer opinions on what we’ll be eating in 50 years. Ask Sam Hayward, co-owner and founding chef of Fore Street, what the famed Portland restaurant might be serving 50 years from now, and he obligingly jumps into an imaginary time capsule to visit 2069 and check out the menu. The question assumes that little has been done since 2019 to put the brakes on climate change. It’s likely, Hayward says, that diners at his restaurant would be feasting on black sea bass, a mid-Atlantic species that already has started moving north into Gulf of Maine waters, or local meat raised on abundant Maine pastureland. “As wild species become more threatened, fish farming will continue to grow, and shellfish farming will grow,” Hayward said. “So you’ll see even more bivalves on the menu, and possibly even some southern species, such as warm-water shrimp, being grown in different places. That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?” Farmers and fishermen are used to dealing with the vicissitudes of Mother Nature, but unchecked climate change may push her finicky personality into overdrive. Dramatic fluctuations in temperature and rainfall, increasingly acidic oceans, new plant and shellfish diseases and insect pests – all of these may challenge traditional notions of what farmers can grow in Maine and how they grow it, and what fishermen harvest from the sea. Even the smaller aspects of daily life – such as what you order off a menu – may look vastly different 50 years from now.”

That’s the news recap for this week. Enjoy the stories below and have a great weekend.

Natural Gas/Oil/Pipeline/Drilling

National Grid refusing customers to build ‘political pressure’ for pipeline, Cuomo suggests, Crain’s New York

Columbia Gas to inspect 700 abandoned gas lines in Valley, Andover Townsman

Weymouth: Public Involvement Plan Participants Request Meeting Postponement Regarding Fore River Oil Clean-up, WATD-FM

Most states don’t require engineers to review gas projects, Eagle-Tribune

Merrimack Valley Marks 1 Year Since Disastrous Gas Explosions, ESPN

Art exhibit protests Weymouth compressor station, Patriot Ledger

Wind And Natural Gas Are Big Winners In US Power Generation, OilPrice.com

Renewables/Climate Change/RGGI

Burlington, Vermont’s net zero energy roadmap showcases how utilities can lead on climate, Utility Dive

‘Like a sunburn on your lungs’: how does the climate crisis impact health?, The Guardian