GREENFIELD — Lawmakers, business and environmental advocates Tuesday urged Berkshire Gas Co. to work quickly toward lifting the moratorium it has imposed on new customers in its service area.
“Continuing the moratorium is unacceptable,” Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, told company representatives at a hearing before the state Department of Public Utilities at Greenfield Middle School on the company’s four-year forecast and resource plan.
Rosenberg attended the hearing along with state Reps. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, and John Scibak, D-South Hadley.
Together, they presented testimony from the region’s legislative delegation about the negative effects on communities impacted by the moratorium, as well as why the DPU should grant them full intervenor status.
The company’s plan was filed with the DPU in July after cancellation of the Tennessee Gas Co. Northeast Energy Direct pipeline through the region.
But details of the plan, for the years 2016-17 through 2020-21, have not been filed yet.
In her opening statement, Berkshire Gas President Karen Zink said “reality” dictated the company’s actions.
“There is congestion on the main line and, quite simply, there is no more space in the lateral pipe” that feeds northward from the main line and was expanded in 2012, she said. “We cannot deliver any more natural gas to our service area based upon the existing system.”
That area includes Amherst, Hadley and Hatfield in Hampshire County and Greenfield, Montague, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately in Franklin County.
Among the eight alternatives being considered in a forthcoming analysis is expansion of the company’s Whately LNG facility, built in 1999 with two 70,000-gallon tanks to be used for winter peak demand, expansion of pipeline delivery capability to the Franklin-Hampshire region, or installation of a new, larger LNG storage and vaporization facility.
Pointing to the delegation’s ongoing conversations with Berkshire Gas officials, the legislators noted, “We have also expressed our disappointment that Berkshire Gas relied almost exclusively on NED to meet future gas supply needs, and did not aggressively explore alternatives such as increased energy efficiency and conservation initiatives … We view this proceeding before the DPU as a golden opportunity to correct that oversight.”
Peter Vickery of Amherst, chairman of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee, told DPU Chairwoman Angela O’Connor and other members of the panel that if the department approves the Berkshire Gas plan, it should do so with the condition that the moratorium be ended within six months.
Kathryn Eiseman, director of Pipeline Awareness Network for the Northeast, said “modest infrastructure modifications could have been implemented by Berkshire Gas years ago to prevent the moratorium.”
Amherst Economic Development Director Geoff Kravitz testified that the moratorium has hampered Amherst’s revitalization efforts by forcing developers and business owners to turn to alternative fuel sources, delayed development and increased costs.
Representatives of the towns of Deerfield, Hadley and Montague also emphasized the impact the moratorium has had on their economies.
Ariel Elan, reading testimony submitted by the Montague Select Board, said, “Montague maintains that Berkshire’s moratorium was never necessary, because Berkshire always had options to modify its local infrastructure to solve its peak-demand problems — both for existing customers and projected new business.”
In her testimony, Rosemary Wessel of Cummington, founder of the group No Fracked Gas in Mass, urged the company to repair its distribution system leaks, better help its customers weatherize and insulate, make off-peak use more attractive through discounts and other approaches to shift demand.
Addressing peak demand by using the approved Whately LNG storage facility “should only be considered as a last resort,” she said.
