Posted on 10/18/2019 6:08:53 AM PDT by Renkluaf
There’s been a standoff between New York City and utility company National Grid going on since May of this year. As you may recall, plans for a new natural gas pipeline from New Jersey were killed off by the state government under pressure from environmental activists. As a result, National Grid wound up imposing a moratorium on new gas hookups because the current supply was insufficient to serve additional customers. This has resulted in more than a thousand potential customers being unable to be hooked up.
Now the Governor has come up with a unique plan to end the stalemate. Using an obscure state law regulating utility companies through the power of the Public Service Commission, Andrew Cuomo (who helped kill the pipeline project) is simply ordering the utility to hook up the gas lines anyway. (New York Post)
The Cuomo administration is ordering National Grid to provide natural gas hookups to over 1,100 previously denied Brooklyn-based customers.
The Public Service Commission, the state body that licenses and oversees public utility companies, announced Friday that National Grid must provide service to customers or else face “millions of dollars in penalties.”
Previously, 1,157 customers had been denied service due to National Grid’s moratorium on all new gas hookups, announced in May.
Cuomo is accusing National Grid of “acting in bad faith” and crowing about their public responsibility to provide reliable service. But he’s simultaneously reiterating his opposition to the Williams Pipeline.
Does this guy understand what he’s asking for here? We’re also left wondering if he understands why the utility stopped authorizing new gas lines in the first place. Does he think that National Grid was simply tired of making money? Obviously they want to sign up new customers so they can begin billing them.
But there isn’t enough natural gas in the existing pipeline to keep adding more service points. If they continue to hook up new customers, you’re going to see the backpressure in the lines start dropping during peak demand hours. If you look at the configuration of a typical gas furnace installation you’ll note that if the incoming gas pressure drops too low, the furnace will simply shut down for safety reasons until the pressure is restored. The same is true for many other appliances that use natural gas or propane.
Since peak demand typically hits during a severe cold snap in the winter, what Cuomo is ordering could result in a lot of people suddenly going without heat, most likely near the furthest extreme of the gas lines. And at that point, complaining to National Grid and issuing more orders isn’t going to make the heat come back on.
Of course, none of this may wind up mattering (at least until winter) because National Grid turned around and agreed to do the hookups anyway. It was that or face crippling fines handed down by the state. They will apparently open up more lines and just wait for the weakening gas supply to shut off the heat on its own.
There’s a solution to this problem right in front of the governor if he has the common sense to see it. Your problem isn’t the management at the utility. It’s the lack of natural gas supplies running into Brooklyn. Approving the new pipeline would fix this because there is a virtually limitless supply of gas waiting for you in Pennsylvania. (And there would be in your own state as well if you hadn’t signed a moratorium on fracking.) Approve the pipeline, get the gas flowing again and all of these headaches go away. Fail to do so and you’re going to wind up with an army of freezing, very angry constituents in February. It’s your call.
Another D-party kickback scheme, once the bribes are paid the justifications will flow, and maybe the gas as well.
Regulating pressure in pipelines is a complicated business. Cuomo doesn’t have the intellect to understand the process.
Sounds like a great way to reduce carbon emissions. Something similar happened in California last week.
Newsom/Cuomo - 2020 !
Cueball wants this so he can then blame and fine the utility once pressure drops to zero during cold weather. Typical blame shifting which fully illustrates the liberal mindset.
“Regulating pressure in pipelines is a complicated business. Cuomo doesn’t have the intellect to understand the process.”
Are you kidding me? Cuomo doesn’t have the brains that God gave a goat.
In 'Atlas Shrugged' that's exactly how Kip Chalmers got the train moving...but I doubt Cuomo has read the book so he wouldn't know the inevitable result.
Just run the current pipeline at higher pressure to pump more gas. What could possibly go wrong? (vision of pipeline shattering causing a huge explosion in Manhattan)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=utility+pump&ok=Search&q=quick&m=all&o=time
Amazing what you find with a simple search.
Somewhere in a recent Wall St. Journal (could have been a letter to the editor) it was pointed out that LNG can be brought into NYC by ship - or could be, if there were any US-flagged LNG tankers. Which there aren’t. Suspension of the Jones Act would enable LNG shipments to NY and to Puerto Rico and Hawaii as well.Not that Cuomo would allow LNG ships to dock, either . . .
It’s pretty bad when reality out satires satire.
We are totally living in an “Atlas Shrugged” world now. this is the sort of thing Rand had her government looters do all the time.
Cueball wants this so he can then blame and fine the utility once pressure drops to zero during cold weather.
BINGO!!!
And few would follow the technical details of his smoke trail and his acolytes will tout his every word.
He will probably win.
Yes you can! Read my tagline!
This is why socialism and command economies fail. They think they can regulate the laws of physics and then blame someone else when their plans fail. Failing then causes them to seize the industry and they really run it into the ground. Just look what CA is doing to PG&E. Socialists really don’t care about the welfare of the people.
I for one am glad Renkluaf posted it, otherwise I would have missed this article.
I don’t get what it is with you posting Nazis that get so bent out of shape with multiple posts. Do you think everyone is on FR 24/7?
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