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After securing key permit, Enbridge hopes to advance pipe project in New England from SNL Daily Gas Report After securing key permit, Enbridge hopes to advance pipe project in New EnglandByline: Sean Sullivan Enbridge Inc. subsidiaries are looking for federal approval to start construction of a compressor station that is an important part of the 132,705-Dth/d Atlantic Bridge natural gas pipeline expansion project in New England after the developers received a permit from a Massachusetts agency. Enbridge pipeline companies Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC requested the authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Nov. 13. (FERC docket CP16-9) The companies told FERC they had received a determination of consistency from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management on Nov. 12. After a review of the gas compressor station in Weymouth, Mass., the state agency found that construction of the station was in line with enforceable program policies. "As part of this review, the project proponent was required to [conform to policies], provide extensive information on the project, and provide additional supplemental information on how the project may impact public access, operate within the designated port area, and be designed for, and resilient to, future conditions relating to storms and sea level rise," Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs spokesperson Katie Gronendyke said Nov. 13. The "decision does not weigh the necessity of additional gas infrastructure, a decision that is made through the FERC certificate," Gronendyke said. Other parts of the Atlantic Bridge project are further along, but the compressor station had been held up by state permitting processes and opposition. In December 2018, FERC staff gave the developers two more years, until Jan. 25, 2021, to complete the estimated $451.8 million Atlantic Bridge project. An Enbridge spokesperson welcomed the Massachusetts decision and said Algonquin continues to obtain approvals for the Atlantic Bridge project. "The proposed Weymouth compressor station is required to help us serve the needs of the Atlantic Bridge project customers located generally north of Weymouth, including local gas utilities in Maine and Atlantic Canada," spokesperson Michael Barnes said in a Nov. 13 email. A local citizens group, Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, objected to the Office of Coastal Zone Management's decision to give a permit to a facility that does not depend on a coastal location. The group said it would determine what actions it can take against the agency, and it appealed to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and the state attorney general. "We will not allow this siting to go forward," the group's executive director, Alice Arena, said in a statement. "We will continue to fight this ill-conceived scheme by all means available and necessary." |
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