The newly released study on proposed natural gas pipelines in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina confirms what the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA) and its members have previously questioned regarding the need and the safety of the projects.
Risks Associated With Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion in Appalachia, released Apr. 27 by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (ieefa.org), concludes that the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines are indicative of a rush toward industry overbuilding and pose risks to ratepayers, communities and investors. The study strongly refutes claims made by the sponsoring companies of both proposed pipelines that the projects are needed to assure continued delivery of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields to markets in Virginia and North Carolina.
“ABRA has sponsored previous studies that pointed to the exaggeration of economic claims to justify new pipelines. We welcome the findings of the IEEFA study that the natural gas industry is overbuilding infrastructure and doings so at excessive costs to utility ratepayers,” stated ABRA Chair and Executive Director Lewis Freeman. “We are also deeply concerned about growing failure rate of recently-built pipelines, as highlighted by the study. Any pipeline project should be proved to be needed and safe before it is approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). So far, neither criteria have been met by the proposed ACP and MVP projects.”
ABRA endorses the study’s recommendations:
• That the applications for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines be suspended until a regional planning process can be developed for pipeline infrastructure;
• That FERC lower the returns on equity granted to pipeline developers; and
• That an investigation be conducted into the relatively high failure rate of new pipelines.
The 30-page IEEFA study is available at: http://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Risks-Associated-With-Natural-Gas-Pipeline-Expansion-in-Appalachia-_April-2016.pdf.
The Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance is a coalition of 50 organizations in Virginia and West Virginia opposed to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Economic impact studies of the ACP previously released by ABRA can be found at http://www.abralliance.org/home/news-updates/economic-studies/.