The demand for more electricity in the U.S. has Oklahoma’s Williams Companies at odds with another energy giant in a bid to see who might win approval for a natural gas pipeline in southern Virginia and North Carolina.
It’s described as a “high-stakes squabble” reported E&E News. Williams and Mountain Valley Pipeline have asked approval of the Federal Energy Rgulatory Commission to build new pipe along Williams’ existing Transco Line in the two states, all in the name of meeting the growing demand for energy.
Williams, based in Tulsa, makes the argument its pipeline can handle all of the planned volumes of natural gas. But Mountain Valley argues its Southgate project is necessary because of the predicted surge in U.S. electricity demand.
As E&E reported, “Both companies are proposing to build about 30 miles of pipe along Williams’ massive Gulf-to-New York Transco gas pipeline system. Both pipelines — MVP Southgate and the Eden Loop segment of Williams’ Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SSEP) — would start at the same point near Chatham, Virginia, and end near Eden, North Carolina.”