As the decision to halt work on Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline filters down, the company has filed notice with federal regulators that the project is on hold.
Stopping short of withdrawing its formal application for approval of its proposed 416-mile-long natural gas pipeline, TGP filed on Friday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission notice that the project is on hold.
“As a result of inadequate capacity commitments from prospective customers and a determination that the Project is uneconomic, Kinder Morgan Inc., Tennessee’s parent company, announced on April 20, 2016 that the company would suspend further work and expenditures on the Project. At this time, Tennessee is in the process of determining how best to proceed consistent with existing contracts.”
The company asks in its filing that FERC take no further action on its application pending an updated status report that it says will be submitted by May 26.
Last week, after announcing suspension of the project that was proposed to pass through eight Franklin County towns, TGP filed for a halt in all state Department of Public Utilities proceedings on whether to grant it access to more than 400 private properties around the state for surveying. It was granted that stay.
Meanwhile, the town of Montague, which has formally intervened before the DPU to on a proposed Berkshire Gas Co. contract agreement for the supply path of the NED project, requested on Friday that the department halt that “precedent agreement” application, since, in the words of the town’s attorneys, the project “is simply not happening.”
There has been no immediate response from the DPU.