Eversource says pipeline deal would lower electric rates, but ratepayers will be charged

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20160226/NEWS/160226624/0/breaking_ajax



Protestors state their case outside South Station Thursday.

Eversource says pipeline deal would lower electric rates, but ratepayers will be charged
By Rachel Riley/Daily News Correspondent
Posted Feb. 26, 2016 at 10:45 PM

MetroWest’s leading electricity provider has petitioned the state to allow a 20-year contract with a natural gas industry titan that the utility said would lower energy bills but charge ratepayers for a massive pipeline project - a deal opponents call unfair and unwise.

In December, Eversource, which owns NSTAR and Western Massachusetts Electric, filed the petition with the Department of Public Utilities to contract with Spectra Energy in the development of the Access Northeast Pipeline.

The Access Northeast Pipeline, a $3 billion project, would link and extend existing natural gas pipelines to transport natural gas from Pennsylvania throughout the region. The natural gas can then be used to run turbines to generate electricity.

~snip~

“Using an electrical utility tariff to help pay for natural gas pipelines provides an unfair competitive advantage for imported natural gas versus locally sourced renewable energy,” Marlborough City Councilor Dave Doucette told a DPU hearing Thursday in Boston. “Such an agreement will benefit the investors and stockholders of utility and natural gas companies while the state’s ratepayers pay the bill.”

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Gov. Charlie does not like nor will he support renewable energy, much the same as Deval Patrick. Charlie wants to bring in more gas lines and buy Canadian power.

[unhappycamper]

1. More - AG: Gas pipeline vet could drain $650G

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2016/02/ag_gas_pipeline_vet_could_drain_650g



Wants to halt DPU hearings until SJC rules

AG: Gas pipeline vet could drain $650G
Brian Dowling
Friday, February 26, 2016

Attorney General Maura Healey is warning her 
office could waste as much as $650,000 to vet a controversial plan to force electric customers to pay for natural gas pipelines — a proposal that’s facing a challenge in the state’s highest court later this year.

“Hundreds of thousands of ratepayers’ dollars will be placed at risk, since the (attorney general’s office) will need to move forward with engaging and paying the consultants and experts,” which would be funded by electric customers, Healey’s office said in a motion to halt the hearings on the contested state plan.

~snip~

“It is crazy that the DPU is moving forward with these incredibly complicated dockets while we and other parties have challenged the idea to the Supreme Judicial Court,” she said.

The funding plan, backed by Gov. Charlie Baker and power utilities, would let electric companies tack charges onto customers’ bills to pay for large interstate pipelines to bring more natural gas into New England. The Supreme Judicial Court in May will hear a challenge to the pipeline plan.

[Divernan]

2. Utilities hit customers with MILLIONS of $$$ in "stranded costs"

Utility companies are expert at underestimating construction costs, in order to get approval from state government oversight commissions(typically called Public Service Commissions, or Public Utility Commissions), and then sticking customers with outrageous cost overrides.

• The nuclear plants operating in U.S. today were
built in the 1960s-1980s.
• Data compiled by U.S. Department of Energy
reveals that total estimated cost of 75 of today’s
nuclear units was $45 billion in 1990 dollars.
• Actual cost of the 75 units was $145 billion, also in
1990 dollars.
• $100 billion cost overrun was more than 200
percent above the initial cost estimates.
• $100 billion overrun does not include escalation
and interest.

www.citizen.org/documents/SchlisselCongressionalBriefing.pdf

My electricity supplier, Duquesne Light, pulled this on its customers, but still payed dividends to its stockholders, bonuses to its execs, etc.