Natural Gas Committee
Background:
The Down East RC&D Natural Gas Committee
formed in 1995 to support construction of the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline
from Sable Island through Maine rather than via some other route. Committee
members testified at hearings in support of the pipeline’s being routed
through Maine and encouraged legislative support for the facility. The
committee is pleased that the facility is providing natural gas to communities
along its route.
Since Construction of the pipeline, the
Natural Gas Committee has met more than 25 times exploring how best to
attain its current objective:
“Secure
the distribution of gas to communities in Hancock and Washington Counties”
The Committee has considered the potential
both for natural gas energy service as a competitive/complementary fuel
alternative for home and business use, as well as the possibility of natural
gas-fueled electric generation in the region. Results from analysis by
two different consultants and an energy expert at UMO have not been encouraging.
None of the three studies provides strong
evidence that the demand for natural gas, based on the area’s current population
and on the existing industrial base in Down East Maine, is adequate to
induce investments of the scale needed to construct a lateral pipeline
from the current facility into the Ellsworth area.
The committee’s current focus is to help
determine whether creative alternatives to actual construction of pipeline
laterals may help provide competitively-priced alternative energy sources
for area businesses and homeowners.
The
Committee:
John Edwards,
Chair
Harty Beardsley
Lawrence C. Johnstone
John Kilgore,
Jr.
Don Baril
Chuck Dawes
Paul Karoski
Perry Mattson
Dick Merrill
Gary Edwards
Dr. Richard Hill,
advisor
|
"We were number ten of 21 people testifying
before the five-member panel of the Sable Island project of the National
Energy Board of Canada. Our testimony was well received, though we were
the only people to testify from the U.S. No one from the Maine Development
Commissions or the Maine State Planning Office was present. The people
testifying were Canadians, mainly from the Maritime Provinces, and they
seem to favor the Maine route, once their gas needs are met. The main contender
against the route through New Brunswick and eastern Maine is the Quebec
Gas Metropolitain. More informal and formal public reviews will be held
in April and May. The final decision on the route will be made by the National
Energy Board of Canada when all the testimony has been gathered." |
