Panelists at Energy Finance 2016 detailed this afternoon how energy companies are overbuilding natural gas pipelines in several states.
Jonathan Peress, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, called for “a more robust needs assessment” by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on such projects.
“As we deploy more renewables, if we can price gas services for what they’re worth so that alternatives can compete, we can call forth from the market a better mix of services, many of them clean energy resources.”
Peress says pipeline overbuild has gained momentum with the fracking boom, and that “it’s going to get worse … the market need is not what’s indicated by the contracts.”
“It looks like we are going to have a relatively overbuilt system,” Peress said.
Carrie La Seur, an IEEFA board member and Montana-based energy-industry lawyer, said challenges to eminent domain are increasingly important in landowner fights against projects that include the proposed Sandpiper pipeline across North Dakota and Minnesota.
