As the title explains America is swimming in natural gas, but if you live in the northeast politics and lack of infrastructure starve the region of this precious source of energy. Stephanie Yang and Ryan Dezember report for The Wall Street Journal: Earlier this year, two utilities that service the New York City area stopped accepting new natural-gas customers in two boroughs and several suburbs. Citing jammed supply lines running into the city on the coldest winter days, they said they couldn’t guarantee they’d be able to deliver gas to additional furnaces. Never mind that the country’s most … [Read more...]
Green Dreams and Gas Nightmares in the Northeast
There's an ocean of natural gas in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale formation, but you wouldn't know it based on the paltry natural gas infrastructure running from the area into the nearby population centers of the Northeast. Despite troves of cheap natural gas only a short way away over land, 20% of New England's natural gas is delivered via expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to Boston's Everett LNG terminal. Freight Waves, an industry journal, reports that in Westchester County, New York, nearly on top of the Marcellus Shale play itself: Con Edison (ED: NYSE), a New York utility … [Read more...]
Preventing the Next Natural Gas Outage
I've been writing to you lately about the gas outage in Newport, Rhode Island that my family and 7,000 others suffered during the cold snap last week. Needless to say, losing heat and hot water in the winter is an uncomfortable experience at best. Thanks to the support of a solid network of friends and family, my family was able to endure the outage, but many residents had it rough. In Minnesota, residents are in the grip of the Polar Vortex, and extreme low temperatures are causing them to draw on their natural gas supplies at a rapid pace. Xcel Energy, the area's utility company, is … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport, Now What?
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport: 80% back on the Grid Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 5 (and 5 to go) Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 4 Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Now that Newport, RI is back on the natural gas grid, I want to share with you a conversation I had with an owner of a successful natural gas operation. He said that the problem basically comes down to the fact that the green movement is spending the money and has politicians in its back-pocket. The utilities aren’t spending the money for political messaging. As a … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport: 80% back on the Grid
Happy Monday Morning, it’s good to be back on the grid with natural gas service restored to 80% of Newport customers. If you were at your home this weekend, then you had several opportunities to intercept a National Grid truck/crew to turn on your gas. I’m guessing the final 20% are vacation homes etc. and could take longer, but the worst is over. This was a unique outage. There are three towns comprising Aquidneck Island: Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. Newport had 6,400 outages (not all homes/hotels were impacted because they pull from a different gas line), Middletown 350. If you … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 5 (and 5 to go)
Good Morning. Today is day five of no natural gas service in Newport, RI. After a mild yet stormy day yesterday with temps in the low 50s, this morning is sunny with temps in the low to mid 30s. It’s hard to believe a mechanical issue could be the culprit of this man-made disaster. And that’s what it is. Because the United States is the Saudi Arabia of oil and natural gas. Take a look at the Marcellus formation in PA and you can see that it’s the lack of pipelines that are keeping Newport in the cold. The thin and narrow pipeline capacity that feeds natural gas to the Northeast is like … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport Day 4
Newport, RI has no natural gas, and the inside of homes here are hovering in the low to mid 40s. This has been National Grid’s second largest gas outage since Hurricane Sandy. And what’s odd is that it was supposedly created by a spike in demand and a faulty valve. If you’re in the heating business, wouldn’t you be ready for spikes in demand in the winter and make sure valves are in working order? Plus, there was no disruption to our electricity, and according to BU Professor Nathan Philips, regional policy dictates gas must go to heating needs before it gets to power generators. “I’m not … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Out of Gas in Newport
You may have read that Newport, RI lost natural gas service Monday, impacting 7,000 customers and approximately 10,000 people. It’s reported that a single faulty valve froze at National Grid’s distribution center dozens of miles north in Weymouth, Massachusetts, causing the system’s pressure to drop significantly. Newport is located at the end of this gas line system, making it most vulnerable to a loss in pressure. Imagine your head being Weymouth and your foot being Newport and you get the idea. Monday morning was bitter cold at zero degrees, with a windchill that had a real feel … [Read more...]