The Town of Shoreham reached a deal with Vermont Gas on Thursday over the construction of the company’s proposed natural gas pipeline.
The town selectboard Thursday signed an agreement with the company that will better position the town if the second phase of the pipeline extension is approved by state regulators, town officials said.
“Any town that doesn’t prepare for the possibility of a line going through is just leaving money on the table,” Shoreham Selectboard Chair Paul Saenger said.
Town residents voted 2-1 against the pipeline this year in a nonbinding town meeting ballot. Saenger said the selectboard’s position remains neutral.
The natural gas utility is offering the town a $100,000 fund for economic development, gas service to homes and businesses, loans to pay for boiler conversions to run natural gas, free well testing for potential contamination, and enhanced emergency training and safety management measures, among other conditions.
“If it is approved, the town doesn’t come out empty-handed,” Saenger said. “It’s foolish to go in unprotected.”
The proposed second phase of the company’s pipeline extension would connect Middlebury to the International Paper mill in Ticonderoga, New York. The pipeline would pass through Cornwall and Shoreham and then extend beneath Lake Champlain.
Vermont Gas said in a statement that the MOU strengthens the project for the town and the state.
“Pending regulatory approval, this MOU represents a significant step toward bringing the benefits of natural gas to Shoreham as well as to Rutland,” said Eileen Simollardes, vice president of Vermont Gas, in a statement.
The Vermont Public Service Board last year approved the company’s first phase of the pipeline extension from Chittenden and Franklin counties to Middlebury.
State regulators will now decide if Vermont Gas’ second phase is good for the state. Gov. Peter Shumlin supports the pipeline because he says it will bring lower-priced fuel to residents and businesses and replace dirtier heating oil.
The company has repeatedly said that the paper mill deal will accelerate the second phase of the project and save utility customers $45 million. Bringing gas to Rutland is the third phase of the pipeline extension.
“There is a real opportunity for the state to capture a significant contribution from International Paper,” said Kimberly Hayden, an attorney representing Vermont Gas, at a prehearing conference this winter before the Public Service Board. “There is a risk that that opportunity would be lost,” she said.
Public Service Board member John Burke replied that phase two should be able to serve the public good on its own. He said the company agreed to evaluate each phase of the pipeline individually at the outset of the regulatory process.
“You can’t pick and choose when you’re going to start combining phase three with phase one and phase two,” he said.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group and other environmental groups oppose the pipeline. VPIRG says there are other ways to bring affordable heating to homes in the state, such cold-climate, air-source heat pumps. They say this technology emits less greenhouse gas as well.
VPIRG and others also oppose the pipeline because it would pass through private property, could contaminate drinking water and extend the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Vermont Gas has said natural gas burns 23 percent cleaner than traditional heating fuels. The company says it has offered several landowners more money for right-of-ways on their property than they would likely receive through the process of eminent domain.
Vermont Gas is waiting for a federal wetlands permit before it begins construction of the first phase of its pipeline construction. It is seeking a waiver from state regulators to begin staging before it obtains this permit. It had planned to begin construction this month.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Cornwall was working with Vermont Gas on an MOU. The town is not discussing an MOU with the company, said Bruce Hiland, chairman of the Cornwall Selectboard.
