At the bottom of the page is an article about the Massachusetts Pipeline SCAM.
Below are some posts about this SCAM.
Senator Pacheco got it right:
Pacheco said he does not want to see any more incentives for fossil fuel infrastructure in Massachusetts, and wants not only to “double down” on efficiency and renewables, but to “quadruple down.”
Energy experts tell us 50% of our energy consumption is wasted.
Your investment in reducing your HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION is permanent and will continue to fill your wallet.
Doesn't that make greater sense than whining about energy costs?
Simple things like increased attic insulation will pay you for years to come.....allowing you to invest in other energy saving items. Additional energy saving information is widely available on the internet.
It's just so simple!
When an appliance finally breaths its last breath and is beyond repair, replace it with the most energy efficient model available. New appliances are much more efficient than your old dinosaur, you can do your own calculations using the information on the label.
Just don't get SNOOKERED!
The horrifying Environmental Catastrophe of FRACKING! Don't forget Kinder Morgan in Massachusetts!
While the Closet Tea Bagger Baker is successfully removing the PUBLIC FROM PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, another ANTI-ENVIRONMENT PROJECT is unfolding courtesy of KINDER MORGAN. [Let's remember that Charlie Baker opposed Cape Wind. Whose pocket is he in? Kinder Morgan maxed out contributions to Charlie Baker. Bought & Paid For Baker?]
Below are just some of the articles posted on this site that clearly display the KINDER MORGAN PIPELINE SCAM:
This & that....Blackburn and other Republican congresspeople are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Koch Industries and other polluters who put profits ahead of the future of our country and planet
Fracked gas across Massachusetts?
Taxpayer Funded Dirty Fuel Pipeline in Massachusetts?
This, that.....
Remember that MASSACHUSETTS FRACKED GAS PIPELINE?
Massachusetts: You're being SCAMMED by the FRACKING GAS PIPELINE!
RSN: Night of the Living Dead, Climate Change-Style
RSN: Vancouver Oil Spill Shows Why [Kinder Morgan's] Trans Mountain Pipeline Should Not Be Built
Kinder Morgan Pipeline SCAM
The Heroes
Massacgusetts Kinder Morgan Dirty Energy Pipeline
Pipelines and Propaganda: Kinder Morgan's Massachusetts pipeline
Kinder Morgan stands firm on proposed natural gas pipeline route THROUGH MASSACHUSETTS
Pipelines and Propaganda: Kinder Morgan's Massachusetts pipeline
Kinder Morgan: GET THE FACTS! Don't get snookered!
Several pipeline execs maxed out Charlie Baker donations
Kinder Morgan stands firm on proposed natural gas pipeline route THROUGH MASSACHUSETTS
Tea Bagger Baker approved this? Behind Closed Doors? Bought & Paid for by Kinder Morgan!
Kinder Morgan pumps up lobbying
Kinder Morgan, which is proposing a controversial natural gas pipeline expansion, is revving up its lobbying and public relations efforts, the Salem News' Christian Wade reports. Kinder Morgan has spent $300,000 on Beacon Hill lobbyists and is backing efforts by the Coalition to Lower Energy Costs to blitz the airwaves with positive television commercials that some critics say are misleading. http://bit.ly/1itVZBB
Baker administration pushes natural gas at Statehouse climate hearing
By Mary Serreze
A Senate climate committee heard four hours of testimony Tuesday on issues related to natural gas pipelines and Massachusetts’ clean energy future, with a Baker administration official the lone voice in favor of increasing access to the fossil fuel.
The question of whether lawmakers should support the growth of pipelines was thoroughly examined at the oversight hearing hosted by the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, chaired by Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton.
Pacheco said he does not want to see any more incentives for fossil fuel infrastructure in Massachusetts, and wants not only to “double down” on efficiency and renewables, but to “quadruple down.”
The hearing was held two weeks after the energy giant Kinder Morgan suspended its federal effort to advance Northeast Energy Direct, a 420-mile pipeline project that would cross parts of Massachusetts. Many in the audience had arrived on a chartered bus from the western part of the state, where opposition to the pipeline has been fierce.
Testimony was by invitation only, and the list included Energy and Environmental Affairs secretary Matthew Beaton, Vincent DeVito, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy who now advises the environmental group Northeast Energy Solutions; Caitlyn Peale Sloan, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation; Rebecca Tepper, energy division chief with the office of Attorney General Maura Healey, and John Rogers of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Beaton said the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker supports increasing natural gas pipeline capacity, even if lawmakers approve importing large amounts of hydropower to feed the energy grid.
An upcoming energy bill is expected to support what Baker calls a “combo platter” of hydropower, offshore wind, solar, transmission upgrades, efficiency measures, and grid innovations. Beaton said Tuesday that increased natural gas pipeline capacity “will play a part.”
“That baseload generation has to come from somewhere,” he said. Beaton raised the spectre of “rolling blackouts and brownouts” and said “we won’t be able to flip a switch on renewables.”
Even though Northeast Energy Direct is suspended, various pipeline proposals remain. Three proposals in the eastern part of the state are Spectra Algonquin Incremental Market; Spectra Atlantic Bridge; and Access Northeast, proposed by Spectra, National Grid, and Eversource. In Berkshire County, Kinder Morgan’s Connecticut Expansion would cut through an area including the Otis State Forest.
Beaton said Massachusetts faces high electricity costs, the retirement of baseload power plants, and aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals. He said Baker’s “holy trinity” of energy concerns are “cost, carbon, and reliability,” and that the three must be balanced.
“Incremental gas capacity, plus hydro, would yield the greatest savings in cost and greenhouse gases,” said Beaton. “There is overwhelming majority opinion that we are in desperate need of more natural gas capacity to address our baseline needs.”
Sen. Ben Downing, D-Pittsfield, said not all reports have reached that conclusion, and queried Beaton. “Why should we give greater weight to any one or other? We can be attracted to the reports where we like the policy outcomes.”
Pacheco at one point interrupted Beaton to say while Massachusetts has high per-unit energy costs, consumer energy bills are in keeping with the rest of the country because of the state’s energy efficiency measures. Beaton said Massachusetts “is the first in the nation” in energy efficiency, but that commercial and industrial users still pay too much.
Beaton was alone in his support for pipelines.
Tepper described a study commissioned by the Attorney General’s office which found no new pipeline capacity is needed to ensure grid reliability. She said adding pipelines would prevent the state from meeting its greenhouse gas reduction goals. Energy efficiency coupled with demand response would be the best bet for consumers and the environment, she said.
“We modeled a pipeline at (.5 billion cubic feet per day) and found it was the dirtiest option,” Tepper said.
Sloan, a lead lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation in its fight against pipelines, said the state is “at a crossroads” when it comes to meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets mandated under the Global Warming Solutions Act.
“Our legal requirement to reduce emissions cannot be fulfilled or met if we build new pipelines,” she said, adding that the foundation disagrees with Baker’s push to add gas to his “combo platter.”
“Electricity needs to be de-carbonized fast,” she said.
DeVito’s remarks focused on the state’s Department of Public Utilities. He said the DPU, which approves so-called precedent agreements between pipeline companies and their customers — and also grants survey permission for interstate pipeline projects — needs reform, and should allow qualified parties a seat at the table in its decision-making.
DeVito noted that Berkshire Gas, a local distribution company, is also an investor in the pipeline through its parent company. Berkshire Gas has imposed a moratorium on new service in its Eastern Division until the NED pipeline is built.
“Why not disclose that conflict in advance?” asked DeVito, in arguing for greater transparency and more robust evaluation policies at the department. He said he unearthed the information about Berkshire’s investment through a formal comment-filing process.
DeVito’s group in January filed a formal protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying that Kinder Morgan’s application for its NED pipeline was incomplete and riddled with inaccuracies. The protest called for an evidentiary hearing. DeVito is a law partner with Bowditch & Dewey.
Sloan also took aim at the DPU. “The DPU never met a contract for gas they didn’t like,” she said. The agency has “an option to exercise scrutiny” to protect the public interest, and “the Legislature could help them do that.”
The DPU denied full intervenor status to DeVito’s group, and to MassPLAN — a coalition that includes landowners, local officials, and state lawmakers — in its consideration of gas contracts on the NED pipeline. Those DPU denials are now being appealed before the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
Sloan criticized Access Northeast, which would serve the power sector. Eversource and National Grid, investors in the pipeline, seek long-term contracts for natural gas capacity on the line. “This is not a contract made on need — it’s Eversource making a contract with Eversource to fleece its customers,” she said.
She said the arrangement, where the utilities would enter into 20-year contracts for pipeline capacity and pass the costs on to their ratepayers, would violate the state’s 1997 utility restructuring law, which forbade electric companies from owning power generation assets. Oral arguments in the matter will be heard by the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday.
Rogers presented a recent report from the Union of Concerned Scientists which found that increasing renewables, including hydropower imports and offshore wind, could reduce New England’s over-reliance on natural gas for power production.
He said it would be a mistake to tie ratepayers to natural gas, with its price volatility. He said Baker’s “combo platter” should “hold the gas.”
“Massachusetts’ policy could dramatically change New England’s electricity mix,” he said. “Massachusetts has always been a leader.”
Notably absent from Tuesday’s hearing was a representatives from Kinder Morgan. Pacheco said Kinder Morgan was invited, but “refused to attend and refused to answer questions from this committee.”
The company did not attend because it “has been focused on a contractually required period of confidential discussions with local natural gas companies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that had committed to purchase gas from the project,” a Kinder Morgan spokesman told The Republican in an email.
Pacheco said the purpose of the oversight hearing was to “check in on where administration is, and where we think they should be” in terms of energy policy.
“If we don’t meet our emissions targets, we have some serious issues ahead of us.”
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