The region's supply of natural gas finds itself short of demand, leading to price spikes, among other problems. Two projects that promise to help combat that are in the works.
National Grid is looking to build a natural gas liquefaction plant at its Fields Point LNG storage facility in order to tap into the growing domestic supplies of natural gas.
The other project looks to expand the delivery capacity of gas pipelines into the state, including to the proposed natural gas electricity-generation facility in Burrillville.
In both cases the projects are drawing local opposition, driven by a desire to see less reliance on fossil fuels, including natural gas, as well as opposition to the source of this less expensive and plentiful domestic supply of gas, which is produced by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The opponents want to see more renewable sources of energy tapped, among them local solar and wind energy as well as hydropower from Quebec. That is a laudable goal but years from being fully realized. We have no choice but to use more natural gas for years to come. •