Local Western Mass. Residents On Edge Over Natural Gas Pipeline Proposal

WBZ-TV, CBS ^ | June 24, 2014 | Joe Shortsleeve

[thackney]

Plans to build a natural gas pipeline through central and western Massachusetts are running into opposition from residents in the communities affected.

The pipeline begins in Troy, Pennsylvania and runs through Wright, New York before entering Massachusetts in Richmond. It would run through dozens of communities before ending in Dracut.

But few residents expect to see any benefits from the pipeline plan.

“It would go in front of our house. It would go through this hay field,” said Pat Worth, one of those residents. Worth is afraid her 25-acre farm in rural Royalston will be ruined if a natural gas pipeline is ever allowed to be built.

“It will destroy property values,” she said. “It will destroy any inheritance to our children. This is not a good thing.”

Called the Northeast Expansion Project, Kinder Morgan, a Houston-based energy company is proposing a multi-billion dollar pipeline. It would cross into western Massachusetts and travel through more than three dozen New England communities.

Here is the issue – energy experts in New England say demand for natural gas is skyrocketing. Half of the homes in Massachusetts now use it and an even larger number get their electricity from plants powered by natural gas.

[dead]

Our entire nation is going to whinge itself to a mewling halt.

[MamaTexan]

“It will destroy property values,” she said. “It will destroy any inheritance to our children. This is not a good thing.”

I understand no one want's to have their property torn up, but I grew up where one of the defining features of the neighborhood was a set of NG pipelines that ran along the bayou I grew up by.... and there was never an issue.

Yet one has to wonder if these people wailing over it being built are the same ones who will be gnashing their teeth when the price skyrockets due to lack of supply.

[ScottinVA]

Whether it’s wind power generation in Nantucket Sound or the natural gas pipeline in the western part of the state, MA residents can be counted on for a NIMBY response.

[PA Engineer]

I remember you had mentioned that. It was a long time ago, however I do remember there were all types of politics going on in Iowa. Under no uncertain terms were we to set foot on the ROW there. I believe that was the summer of 81 and there was a bad drought. We were scrambling to find non-catalytic convertor 4WDs for the work.

Because of the delays, I never did see the the preliminary IOWA sections. I headed over the Saudi in January of 82. I did have post-commissioning visits to some of the sections I believe in 85 in between contracts overseas.

It was a fun project, but bumpy as all get up. Lots of driving with few hotel/restaurants along the way. The mini-cross reflectors where people were killed along the roads in Montana was a bit spooky.

[Riflema]

So this is less safe than the huge refrigerated gas tanker that comes in to Boston harbor from Trinidad every month?

Nice NIMBY-on-NIMBY fight shaping up between the cities of Boston/Everett/Chelsea (mostly LIV's) and the elites in Richmond!

Put the popcorn on.

[knarf]

THEY FRIKKIN' PAY YOU TO USE YOUR LAND AND RECOVER IT SO WELL ... IT LOOKS LIKE BEFORE

I've seen literally hundreds of properties torn up for pipeline, and put back to pasture (or whatever) with no visible way of knowing what they did last year.

Hell .. I wish they'd use MY land ... they pay very well per foot.

[woodbutcher1963]

It is about time someone built another ng pipeline up here. I just received my prebuy heating oil contract from my local company for this coming heating season. Their offering is $3.549/gallon. This translates into me spending between $3700-4000 if I just heat my 2700 square foot house with oil. To get this price, I must go on automatic delivery and purchase 500 or more gallons. I will use at least 1000 gallons. I am typical of a New England consumer.
Therefore, I will be installing a Harman Pellet insert this fall. With the price of pellets vs. oil it should pay off in about 4-5 years. The installation of the stove will be just under $5000. Pellets run about $220/ton. A typical house will use between 4-6 tons of pellets throughout the season.

These people out in western Mass need to get over themselves. Buried pipelines do not effect their property values like an electric transmission line. As you can see from your map there is a great need for transmission lines into New England. Most of the current supply goes to generate electricity. I am on a rural road. I do not foresee a natural gas line ever being installed in front of my house in southern NH. If you look at your map, I live about where the “g” in Hillsborough County is in NH. The current gas lines go north along the Merrimack river through the cities of Nashua, Manchester and Concord. Of the 50 people in my office, only 3 of us have ng at our house. Almost all of us heat with oil or propane. Many of us have wood or pellet stoves as a secondary heat source.

[Texas resident]

I would bet these same idiots live in houses with buried utilities. They have a nat gas line leading into their house. Electric lines that carry electricity are buried in the wet ground. Oh the horrors.

[woodbutcher1963]

Exactly, it is no different than having a sewer or water line pipe in front of your house.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Dracut, Sommerville with trees.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"Butane is a bastard fuel."

[Mears]

Dracut is one of those towns that probably 95% of the MA population has never even heard of.

.

[Sherman Logan]

Electric transmission lines, railroads and pipelines, among other utilities, provide little if any direct benefit to the people whose land they cross.

But they are absolutely essential if products are to be moved around efficiently. Which is precisely why the Constitution allows for eminent domain. Even if it’s abused wildly today.

[woodbutcher1963]

We have been getting the same response from the folks up in Coos county NH regarding the Northern Pass. This is a $1 billion dollar proposed high tension wire electric transmission line to be built from the Quebec/NH border south to Ma. They have proposed a new right of way for about 35 miles from the PQ border. Nobody up there wants to be able to even see it from their property. They are worried about it ruining their VIEW. PSNH may end up burying a portion of the transmission line. The other complaint that many of the northern NH residents is that the increase in electric power is not needed in their area or even currently in NH. Potentially, in 10 years we may need the extra power here in southern NH. The majority of the power will go to Mass, RI and CT. They have tried to call the power bad because it comes from hydro dams in PQ where land was flooded to create reservoirs. In fact, most of the power comes from the dams on the St. Lawrence river.

[woodbutcher1963]

Dracut, land of the women with BIG HAIR.

Their best portrayal was of Micky Ward’s sisters in “The Fighter”. They got the accent, hair style and mannerisms down in that movie. I swear I knew some of those women from going to clubs in Lowell in the 80’s.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If you don’t work at the jail, you can look for work on the pipeline.

[woodbutcher1963]

I wonder if Tesla got this much grief when he was involved with those hydro electric projects at Niagara Falls.
There was probably a big WHALE OIL lobby that was totally against it.

[grania]

I'm looking at that map. It isn't going through pasture land. It's going through pretty rugged forested land, with some high elevation areas and a lot of streams and rivers. Believe it or not, MA residents in rural areas tend to be conservative and would prefer more functions and decisions be local.

I could see environmental issues here, and not from people being hypocritical. Rural MA is a well-regulated environment.

(I lived in one of those towns for a few years while transitioning to OH)

[Sherman Logan]

Not really. The market for whale oil had been destroyed decades before by the eevvill men who found a much cheaper and better source of light in kerosene for rural areas, and gas lighting in towns.

The guys selling kerosene might have had some theoretical incentive to oppose electrical lighting, but the market for petroleum products was exploding in all directions. So the people with real incentive to oppose electricity would have been those with capital invested in the gas lighting systems.

[glorgau]

> But few residents expect to see any benefits from the pipeline plan.

i.e. they want to shake down the business and impose a toll.