about kinder morgan's pipeline proposal

8/12/2019 About Kinder Morgan's Pipeline Proposal

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About Kinder Morgan’s Pipeline Proposal

“Northeast Energy Direct” is aproject in the early exploratory phase.Kinder Morgan company is asking

the state to provide a large subsidy sothat a high-pressure 30” or 36”natural gas pipeline can be installedin Dracut & Tyngsboro as a newbranch of the Tennessee Gas Pipelinenetwork. Construction could begin asearly as January 2017.

What are the dangers to Dracut? 

The company has chosen Dracut as the site of a largecompressor. This station would add noise pollution24 hours a day. It would exhaust nitrous oxide gasfrom compression turbines, and flammable methanewhen the pipeline system is periodically vented. Itcould render a 25 to 30 acre section of East Dracutinaccessible, due to the need for a large buffer zone.

Second, Kinder Morgan wants to clear a 75 to 100foot path removing trees and disrupting conservationlands, wetlands, Water District land for pumpingstations, and the Dracut/Tyngsboro State Forest.Having so much pipeline in town creates added riskof major accidents. One almost occurred duringexcavation on Loon Hill Road in 2010 (reported inthe Lowell Sun, 10/21 and 10/25/10).

Third, the New England States Committee onElectricity has endorsed a new tariff to increaseutility bills in all 6 states in New England to pay thepipeline’s $2.7 billion cost. The proposed pipeline isso large that most of the gas could be exported (see

goldborolng.com). The cost of natural gas fromPennsylvania may be cheap now. But watch whathappens when the output of fracking wells goesdown. Prices are expected to go up before thepipeline is complete with or without export pressure,according to gas industry publications.

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Is this really needed?

New gas capacity is planned along two existing righof ways (southern MA, Maine coast) that can renderthis pipeline unnecessary (see pngts.com ,spectraenergy.com). Energy conservation programsalready in place saved enough gas to fuel 52,000homes in the last three years.2 Stopping gas leaks inmetro Boston would save enough gas to fuel 18,000

homes.3 The new building code effective July 1, 201saves even more. New technologies (i.e. LED bulbs,distributed generation, smart meters) reduce the neeto use gas fired power plants to generate electricity.

Can it be stopped? 

The short answer is yes. Kinder Morgan has not evedecided on whether to apply for this pipeline and ifwe can get our state to reject the tariff in June or Julthe pipeline could be dead. Our group is planning to

explain this at Town Meeting on June 2. Please joinus as we work together to apply to stop this pipelineand work toward other solutions to our energy needs----------------1Labyrinth Consulting Study, 4/10/2014.2 http://www.mass.gov/eea/pr-2013, 12/22/2013.3 www.clf.org/intothinair report, page 22. 

Prepared by: Dracut/Tyngsboro Pipeline Awareness Group. Contact: julie_jette@comcast.netMore Information: http://massplan.org  and Facebook group: http://tiny.cc/stopdracutpipeline