New Hampshire regulators can make all the rules they want regarding natural gas pipelines, but in the end all that matters is what the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decides, according to the company trying to build a transmission pipe through the Granite State.
In a Feb. 29 filing with the state’s Site Evaluation Committee (SEC), an attorney for energy company Kinder Morgan suggested the state was wasting its time trying to develop rules of its own.
“The siting and approval of interstate high-pressure gas pipelines proposed by private companies is governed by FERC. FERC alone approves the location and construction of interstate pipelines, related facilities and storage fields involving moving natural gas across state boundaries,” wrote Manchester attorney Scott O’Connell on behalf of Kinder Morgan and the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project.
“In the event that any state or municipal law or ordinance conflicts with a FERC requirement, FERC’s requirement will prevail,” according to O’Connell. “We respectfully urge with respect to interstate pipelines that the SEC or its member agencies participate in the FERC process itself and avoid incorporating further requirements that are duplicative or, if not, likely preempted by federal law.”
The 30-inch-wide pipeline would span 80 miles across southern New Hampshire, through 17 communities, many of which have organized opposition to the proposal.
“It seems Mr. O’Connell doesn’t want any changes to be made in SEC rules, and he’s very much against anything that would raise the bar for Kinder Morgan in front of the SEC,” said Maryann Harper, co-chairman of the New Hampshire Pipeline Awareness Network, a coalition of pipeline opponents.
“But I think he’s really treading on risky ground by continuing to throw it in the face of the SEC that they really don’t have a role in this process,” she said.
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