Posted on 12/06/2013 5:16:12 AM PST by thackney
Alexis Madrigal, a blogger for The Atlantic, asked yesterday if anyone had noticed the massive energy transformation that took place in New York City about a month ago?
The transformation that Madrigal is alluding to is a clutch of natural gas pipeline expansion projects that came online in and around New York City in early November.
These projects and several more like them in the previous three years have expanded the total deliverability of natural gas into New York by about one third.
The cumulative impact is that natural gas future prices for January and February of 2014 are lower in New York City than Louisiana.
I repeat: the natural gas futures price is lower in New -York City than Louisiana. The same cannot be said for New England.
While the national news media may have missed this story, it has also missed a related and arguably more important story about the lack of similar pipeline expansions in New England.
Natural gas flows into New England from the south via the Tennessee Gas Pipeline and the Algonquin Gas Transmission. Last winter, these pipelines were operating at near or full capacity nearly every day. Unlike New York and New Jersey, the pipelines transporting gas into New England have not expanded in years and are not scheduled to expand until 2016 at the earliest.
The result is an escalating energy crisis in New England.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Yep, in Everett on the Mystic River right across from Charlestown. It's not very active though...
not in the kennedy’s back yard ... too unsightly, ya know
Please keep in mind that New England is not that much different in regards to red/blue than any other state in the country. The difference is there are more densely populated cities than the Midwest/south/west. For example, I recall driving through Mass when the Senate race was going on. All the people in the rural area of central Mass had Scott Brown signs in their yard. As soon as we got into Worchester the signs for Liawatha dominated the landscape. The rural areas are outvoted by the cities. This is the same in VT, NH, ME and especially NY. I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo. Everyone in NY wanted all of NYC and Long Island to be a separate state.
As far as power goes. Public Service of New Hampshire has been trying to get the right of way secured for two years to bring hydro electric power from Quebec St. Lawrence River down through NH to Mass and CT. They call it the Northern Pass. It has been very controversial here in NH because WE do not need the power. Mass & CT do. They will use existing right of ways in most of the state , but there is about 45 miles in the northern tip of NH that they are trying to get right of way. The people up north do not want it because of the “not in my back yard” and “ it will ruin my view”, etc. It is going to cost about $1 Billion to build. However, the utility will make 10X that over the next 20 years selling the power down south. Quebec Hydro has more power than they know what to do with. There is no shortage of water coming out of Great Lakes. They flow 24/7 and keep turning those turbines while we sleep for about $.0001/KW.
They are regulated utilities and don't make any higher percentage of profit, crisis or not. Their profit percentage on sales is limited by law and the state PUCs set prices, not the utilities. All things considered, the gas utilities in New England would rather sell more gas than less.
They also have 'universal service mandates' imposed on them. If they screw up and don't provide service, they can be fined heavily.
Also understand that the utilities only distribute the gas locally. They buy the gas from transmission companies, and the transmission companies have not been able to expand their long distance pipelines in New England. No one wants a new pipeline in their neighborhood. Hence, demand and total available supply are becoming dangerously close. One or two breakdowns could cut off supply for millions.
It is a fundamental infrastructure problem that needs to be addressed.
They already have! All liberals need to spend a couple of years without electricity and water...Just so they can have solidarity with “the poor” they all claim to care about!
ROTFLMAO!!! I'm sure Sodom and Gomorrah had their defenders back in the day.
'The Horrible Lack Of Planning That Could Force New England Into A Serious Energy Crisis This Winter'.
OK, so in what ever state you live in all the people that live in the inner city of your state are conservative voters? BULLCR%P
For example, are you telling me that the African Americans and Hispanics in Memphis did not primarily vote for Obama in both of the last two elections? How about Austin, Atlanta, Birmingham, Little Rock, Columbia, Dallas, New Orleans, etc. All of these states went for the Republican but their cities predominately vote Democrat. What I am stating is the New England rural areas are not that much different that the rural areas in the rest of the country.
The difference is the urban populations OUTVOTE the country people.
When I lived in New England, the locals 1. would not allow gas pipelines to be built(NIMBY) 2. shut down the best electrical producer in the region (nuclear plant outside Boston) 3. would never even consider allowing a coal-fired plant to be built.
What they did was leave themselves hostage to burning fuel oil to heat their homes.
A really stupid was to go as oil has much more value as a transportation fuel or making lubricants instead of burning at the boiler tip.
Congress, as is customary, always ensured the libs were taken care of by passing fuel oil credits to reduce the impact of high costs.
I say let ‘em freeze if they do not wish to do what the rest of America does.
FYI, this is why almost everyone in NE outside the cities has either a wood stove or a pellet stove to supplement their winter heat. There are only four people out 50 here in my office in NH that have natural gas at their homes. All the rest of us heat with heating oil or propane. Electricity is too expensive even though it was deregulated here two years ago. That brought the price down about 15-20% for those of us that switched electric suppliers.
They are turning that plant off because of a fedgov mandate. This is something most electric consumers are missing.
Here’s how it works, I’m from ND so I will use Theodore Roosevelt National Park as an example.
- Here’s what you find on the taxpayer funded web National park service site for air quality in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/permits/aris/thro/impacts.cfm?tab=0#TabbedPanels1
Note that the “haze” in the pictures (something we normally call fog here in ND) is assumed to be caused by air pollution, specifically NOx. Also note that the power plants in ND are downwind of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Groups like Wild Earth Guardians use the EPA to clean up the air in notional parks, in this case, Theodore Roosevelt National Park;
- The EPA responds with threats to take over environmental regulation in ND with mandates for ND power plants to clean up NOx. NOx is supposed to be the cause of the “regional haze” (fog) in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
- The power plant I work at spends 450 million to upgrade its SO2 scrubbers and install a NOx reduction systems. The NOx reduction is accomplished by spraying urea into the boiler at a cost of 200-800 dollars per hour depending on the coal. (These are the costs that are shutting down coal plants in New England and across the nation.)
- The Coop I work for has to raise rates by 30% to cover the cost of meeting the government mandates. (Our rates have doubled in the last ten years mainly to meet government mandates.)
- EPA reimburses the legal costs Wild Earth Guardians incurred suing EPA.
Recap, the costs to the taxpayer/consumer;
- pay for a government web site claiming regional haze is caused by power plant pollution
- the legal costs entities like Wild Earth Guardians incur suing the fedgov.
- the costs to upgrade power plants to meet new pollution control mandates
- the ongoing new and increased costs of lime and urea for SO2 and NOx control.
Consumers/taxpayers really need to learn to drill down to the true root causes and take it up with the people they elected to serve them. There is no better way to kill an economy than to artificially raise the cost of its lifeblood - energy.
Oh, please...in RURAL counties like Coos, Grafton, Cheshire, and Sullivan; Obama slaughtered Romney. Hillsborough, which is more urban/suburban, went to Romney (albeit by a whisker). You're right that in MOST situations, urban outvotes rural. Red Hampshire rural areas vote Democrat; by a WIDE margin. RH = blue state.
You are right about NH. I think Keene State, UNH and Dartmouth dominate those sections of the state. What has happened to the old time Yankee conservatives that were here in NH. I guess we are getting outvoted by the retirees from the liberal states to south and west.
“Power / Utility companies like to create “crises”. It pays well.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3098829/posts?page=24#24
Crisis doesn't pay as well or as steady as simply selling more energy.
It's government that likes the crisis, utility companies like the steady. Politicians need to get re-elected, and promising to solve the current crisis (that they caused) is a good campaign issue.
Thanks for the detailed response, will contact offline....
Well, since the Northeast is overrun by liberals, it looks like they will find out the real cost of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Both Peter and Paul get screwed when the money runs out (or the coal and oil and there’s no natural gas to replace it). Karma sucks, y’all.
I believe that many have either died off or moved away...my wife was born here, and she doesn't even recognize the town she was born in...mostly people from 'away'; predominantly New Yorkers from suburban NYC. Dartmouth area (Grafton County) is flaming liberal, as is Keene for the reasons you state. Keep in mind (make sure you're sitting down) that VERMONT used to be a conservative state. The liberals from the states to the south and west (along with 'deadheads') overran the place. You're also right about New York...people upstate want NOTHING to do with the city...especially the tax burden. So many people have moved away from New York and Massachusetts that they have lost Congressmen...
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