Connecticut Trade Group Calls For Immediate Halt to Natural Gas Expansion

The natural gas transmission pipeline runs through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey and is 1,130 miles. It is owned by Enbridge, based in Canada.

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  The trade group representing Connecticut’s home heating oil dealers is renewing its efforts to fight the expansion of the natural gas network in Connecticut.

Chris Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont Tuesday urging that Lamont issue an Executive Order that would bring a halt to all efforts to expand the natural gas distribution network and connecting new residential and industrial customers.

In the letter, Herb cited the explosion of a natural gas pipeline in Massachusetts last year and two additional incidents that occurred last weekend in New York and Rhode Island. A pressure buildup in the natural gas distribution of Columbia Gas caused explosions and fire that impacted 8,600 customers across three eastern Massachusetts communities.

Last year’s Massachussets disaster killed an 18-year-old and injured about two-dozen other people. It also left thousands without heat and hot water, in some cases for months

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo declared a state of emergency for the Newport area late Monday after National Grid suspended natural gas service to 7,100 customers due to a pressure problem associated with the Algonquin Pipeline, with is part of the transmission network that brings the fuel into New England.

The natural gas transmission pipeline runs through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey and is 1,130 miles. It is owned by Enbridge, based in Canada.

Enbridge officials were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Herb said Wednesday that he also heard from the Connecticut home heating oil dealers that service residential and commercial customers in New York City and surrounding community that “hundreds of service interruptions” have prompted home owners and business to switch to home heating oil.

“I was trying to loop our new governor in on what has been going on,” Herb said. “This expansion was part of an initiative by the previous governor.”

Lamont’s press office did not respond to a request for comment about Herb’s letter.

Courtesy: www.nhregister.com