Leaders at Tulsa’s Williams Companies must be holding their collective breath following a critical vote this week by New York’s Public Service Commission on a plan to supply natural gas to New York City.
The Commission did not specifically vote to support the Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline to carry gas from New Jersey to New York City. But it agreed to authorize a plan from utility National Grid to supply natural gas to New York City that includes construction of the controversial Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline that would run beneath New York Harbor, reported WRGB 6 News in Albany.
Part of the plan includes the Northeast Supply Enhancement line that Williams wants to receive and has received some early approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. However, the Public Service Commission did not vote on the NESE. But it is part of National Grid’s long-term gas plan, one the company calls a blueprint necessary to make sure reliable energy is there for millions of downstate New Yorkers.
The NESE project would only affect New York City and not customers in the upper parts of New York State.
“The gas planning activities we require National Grid to undertake today will ensure that National Grid continues to provide safe, adequate, and reliable service while striving to meet the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets,” said Commission Chair Rory M. Christian, according to WRGB 6 News.
The vote came on Thursday and drew immediate reaction from Sally Librera, President of National Grid New York.
“The PSC order today affirms our determination that the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project is needed for enhanced reliability of our gas network,” she said.
But the pipeline also has its opponents.
As the Albany TV station reported, Kim Fraczek, Director of the Sane Energy Project said the state is supposed to be reducing its emissoins by 40% in 2030 and is only at about 9%.
“Building the Williams-NESE pipeline and allowing National Grid to expand its gas system will make sure that we will never meet that legal goal. New York State denied this pipeline in 2018, 2019, and in 2020 because it would have destroyed our water and it would have been way too expensive for New Yorkers to feasibly afford,” she added.
One Public Service Commission member, John Maggiore, was the only “no” vote to approval of the plan, which he argued would counter any effort to reduce New Yor’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“The NESE pipeline could in certain circumstances mitigate the risk of potential cataclysmic failure of the gas system that nearly happened in 2022. Nonetheless approval of this order will not do anything to help what almost happened in 2022 if it happens in 2025. Whatever we do today the threat demands an adaptive response not simply a technical one,” he said.
York Harbor, cbs6albany.com reported late Thursday.
The PSC has no formal role in the pipeline’s approval – a decision is imminent from the state Department of Environmental Conservation – but the regulator agreed with National Grid (NYSE:NGG) that steps are