Study: Pipelines Needed To Keep Lights On
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WHEELING --As natural gas continues replacing coal as a primary fuel for generating electricity, a new study claims federal regulators must approve billions of dollars worth of pipeline infrastructure to keep the lights on in one-third of the country.
Also, one of the projects still under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the $4.3 billion Rover Pipeline, must open this year to keep Antero Resources working in Ohio, the Denver-based driller states in its 2017 operating forecast. Original predictions showed the pipeline would open last year, but delays related to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act continue.
Recently, FERC staff members granted preliminary approval to three major pipelines: the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Atlantic Sunrise and the Nexus Pipeline. However, FERC commissioners still need to vote on allowing these projects, while several others remain in the review stages.
Meanwhile, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that a daily record of 27.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day went to electricity generation in 2016. As electricity producers such as American Electric Power and FirstEnergy Corp. turn off coal-fired generators, the demand for natural gas electricity could continue to grow.
"Real energy security is not just the presence of abundant natural resources -- it is also the ability to readily access and deliver those resources at an affordable price," said Consumer Energy Alliance President David Holt, whose organization sponsored the study predicting that one-third of the country's electricity capacity would fade to black by 2030 without the new pipelines.
FERC continues evaluating these pipeline projects that would ship Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas to larger markets:
– the $4.3 billion Rover conduit, which would ship up to 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from in pipe up to 42 inches in diameter from West Virginia and Ohio to Michigan;
– the $1.75 billion Leach XPress, which would be up to 36 inches in diameter on its path from the MarkWest Energy station in Marshall County all the way across Ohio;
– the $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run southward from the MarkWest Energy site in Wetzel County to a compressor station in Virginia;
– and the $2 billion Mountaineer XPress, which would send 2.7 Bcf natural gas per day from West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania south to a Columbia Pipeline Group station in Leach, Ky.
Recently, FERC staff gave preliminary approval to these projects, though commissioners still must vote on them:
– The $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline is planned to be 564 miles long with the 42-inch pipeline diameter. It would connect pipelines from Tyler County to run south through West Virginia and Virginia on the way to North Carolina. It should transport 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day; and
– the $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise project, which is a 183-mile addition to an existing pipeline system would carry 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from Pennsylvania to the Southeast; and the 36-inch diameter Nexus Pipeline -- which will travel 255 miles to connect the Marcellus and Utica shale region to the Detroit area at a cost of nearly $2 billion for developer, Spectra Energy.
Officials with Antero Resources, which drills in both Ohio and West Virginia, specifically state in their operating forecast that they will move operations intended for Ohio to West Virginia this year if the Rover faces more delays.
"Rover understands its responsibilities under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and implementing regulations and with Rover's commitment to conducting tree clearing outside of the migratory bird breeding season it will abate any chance or direct take of protected species," a document Rover developers filed with FERC Jan. 4 states.
According to the report, "Families, Communities and Finances: The Consequences of Denying Critical Pipeline Infrastructure," the amount of power endangered if the pipelines don't proceed would be enough to illuminate California, Florida, Texas, Ohio and New England.
The study shows that failing to approve the pipelines would have a particularly negative impact on "43 million people living on a fixed income or below the poverty line," while also resulting in the loss of more than $15 billion in private capital investments.
"Denying America the critical energy infrastructure it sorely needs, and prematurely shutting off baseload electricity generation starts an adverse domino effect that hurts America, its families, its small businesses and its agriculture, manufacturing and transportation sectors," Holt added. "It would derail the American energy revolution and increase our reliance on imports from foreign nations."
In 2016, natural gas surpassed coal as the primary fuel used for power generation in the U.S., supplying an estimated 34 percent of the nation's electricity, compared with 30 percent for coal.