R.I. PUC rejects CLF efforts to quash gas pipeline expansion financing

ACCESS NORTHEAST is a project to expand the volume of natural gas coming into southern New England, but it has hit a roadblock in Massachusetts, where the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled against one of its financing plans. / PBN GRAPHIC/DARRYL GREENLEE
ACCESS NORTHEAST is a project to expand the volume of natural gas coming into southern New England, but it has hit a roadblock in Massachusetts, where the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled against one of its financing plans. / PBN GRAPHIC/DARRYL GREENLEE

WARWICK – The R.I. Public Utilities Commission on Thursday rejected a motion from the Conservation Law Foundation to dismiss a proposal to enhance natural-gas pipelines using Rhode Island ratepayer-backed funds.

The three-member commission voted unanimously to reject the CLF proposal, which would have stopped a plan by National Grid PLC to help the expansion of an existing pipeline. The project is part of a larger natural-gas pipeline expansion development called Access Northeast Project. The law group filed the motion last month after Access Northeast hit a roadblock in Massachusetts, where the Supreme Judicial Court rejected a similar proposal to build new pipeline using ratepayer-backed funds.

In Rhode Island, National Grid is proposing to establish a 20-year contract between the utility and the Algonquin Gas Transmission Co. LLC, a subsidiary of Spectra Energy Corp., which owns the natural gas pipelines and is heading Access Northeast.
Ratepayers would be responsible for paying back the cost of that contract, which Natural Grid argues is worthwhile given it will save New England retail electric customers – under “normal weather conditions” – about $1.6 billion per year from 2019 through 2039. Rhode Island would accrue about $141 million in savings during that period.

After the Massachusetts SJC rejection, however, it became less clear how the project would move forward financially, as National Grid’s proposal says the project would require other New England states to take responsibility for a proportionate share of the project costs, and Bay State ratepayers pay for about 60 percent of New England’s electric load.

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The R.I. PUC on Thursday said National Grid must provide an update on the status of Access Northeast in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England by Jan. 13.

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