The latest petition against Vermont Gas Systems’ proposed pipeline extension includes about 450 of the company’s own customers, an environmental group says.
Rising Tide Vermont collected about 500 signatures calling for the company to halt construction and asks the state’s Public Service Board to reconsider the project’s costs and benefits. The petition points to the recently announced 40 percent cost increase of the proposed pipeline through Addison County.
Some residents now plan to stage a sit-in Tuesday at the Public Service Board offices. The board will eventually decide whether to reconsider the company’s permit.
Vermont Gas estimates it will cost $121 million to build the 41-mile pipeline, about $35 million more than originally projected when state regulators approved the project in December. The company said competition for natural gas pipeline construction drove up costs.
Pipeline opponents say cleaner and cheaper heating alternatives – such as heat pumps – are available that cost less and emit less greenhouse gas when powered by renewable resources. Energy from heat pumps costs about the same as natural gas per million British thermal units, according the Department of Public Service’s fuel price report.
The company has said the benefits of the project still outweigh the cost by providing new customers $150 million in energy savings. The company also says natural gas burns cleaner than traditional heating fuels such as No. 2 oil.
Steve Wark, spokesman for Vermont Gas, said the new cost estimate would increase rates by about 3.8 percent.
He said crews are preparing the site for construction. To delay construction would cost the company – and ratepayers – “tens of thousands of dollars per day,” he said.
Chris Recchia, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, which represents the public in decisions before the board, said construction should not be delayed and the company should “start construction now” in order to avoid added costs.
Nonetheless, he said Vermont Gas should have had a better handle on the costs to build the pipeline. That’s why Recchia said the department wants to review the company’s cost methodology to ensure it includes all cost factors.
“I would say that it does go to an understanding of their ability to manage a project of this magnitude and ensure that we all know exactly what’s going on at all times,” Recchia said.
The Shumlin administration supports the pipeline.
Vermont Gas is a subsidiary of Gaz Métro, Quebec’s largest natural gas company.
The company also plans to bring natural gas to a paper mill in New York and later to Rutland. Both proposals still need state and federal approval.
Residents who oppose the project say the cost increases will be borne by customers in Franklin and Chittenden counties – where Vermont Gas serves nearly 50,000 customers.
“This is unprecedented in Vermont. The Board’s existing findings and conclusions do not justify this unprecedented subsidy,” states a complaint filed on behalf of Kristin Lyons of Hinesburg and by Nathan and Jane Palmer of Monkton.
Monday is the final day the Public Service Board is accepting comments on Vermont Gas’ new cost estimate for the pipeline.
Rising Tide Vermont, a direct action environmental group that staged a protest at the natural gas utility’s South Burlington offices in April, sent a petition to state regulators Monday.
The Conservation Law Foundation has also asked state regulators to halt the project and reconsider the costs.
