What Happens When You Don't Build Natural Gas Pipelines?

Forbes ^ | JAN 7, 2018 | Jude Clemente

[TigerLikesRooster]

What Happens When You Don't Build Natural Gas Pipelines?

Jude Clemente , CONTRIBUTOR

The answer to the question posed is a really, really bad chain reaction: magnified during winter and peak demand...with a pipeline shortage...a natural gas shortage is created, prices for both natural gas and electricity skyrocket, CO2 emissions go up because more carbon intensive fuels are forced to compensate.

Headquartered in New York, New Jersey, and New England (hereafter the "Northeast"), the devastating consequences of the anti-pipeline business just reared its ugly head again as we faced the coldest temperatures since The Polar Vortex of 2013-2014. Two of my Forbes colleagues recently knocked this issue outta the park again, so see them for mind-blowing stats on price spikes:

"Amid Deep Freeze, New Englanders Can 'Thank' N.Y. Gov. Cuomo For Their High Energy Bills," here
"Natural Gas Demand Hits Record As Cold Bomb Targets Northeast," here.

But, let me just say that natural gas prices in some parts of the Northeast boomed 60-70 times their recent rates because there's not enough pipeline capacity in the region to bring in natural gas in times of high demand. After years of warnings, this remains a massive problem: gas is increasingly being utilized in the Northeast for both generating electricity and heat. For example, gas provides over half of the power in the region, despite no significant gas producing state there.

[WayneS]

And those guys don’t work cheap... ... and they eat a lot of beans...