Natural Gas-starved NY State supply pipeline project abandoned after Gov. Cuomo vowed “any way that we can challenge it, we will”

Legal Insurrection ^ | February 26, 2020 | William A. Jacobson

[C19fan]

After a four-year battle with the state, the proposed Constitution natural-gas pipeline project has been abandoned, as National Grid warns of a coming natural gas supply emergency next Winter.

The State of New York has a natural gas shortage, the result of years of the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and environmentalists fighting the construction of new supply pipelines.

A June 2019 report by The Manhattan Institute documented the shortage and its causes, Out of Gas: New York’s Blocked Pipelines Will Hurt Northeast Consumers:

[PGalt]

Jumpin’ Jack Flash...it’s a gas. Crossfire Hurricane redux?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ9D0UHP7x4

[elteemike]

I get your meaning, but last time I looked NYC is still in the state of NY making the voters in the city New Yorkers...So my use of “NY voters” wasn’t incorrect...Never said ALL NY voters...

I also get that like Colorado, where Denver dominates the state politically, NYC dominates New York even though many of the upstaters might be conservative...

Freegards...LtM

[elteemike]

Guess I should have specified “enough” or “liberal” voters in NY state to avoid ruffling feathers...Which was NOT my intent...

Same deal here in Colorado...Denver/Boulder/Front Range Urban Corridor dominates the rest of the state, which geographically is still center right...

[metmom]

It’s really the same in any state.

VT, NH, MA, ME, CA, VA, TX is going that way, as is FL.

I suppose when TSHTF and society breaks down, the biggest attrition will be in the areas that created the mess in the first place.

Those of us red voters, the conservatives, will be the ones off the beaten path, prepped and able to grow our own food, and armed.

[cherry]

not enough Cuomos's buddies will make money with a pipeline or fracking....

once his buddies get in position, it'll be full steam ahead....

[chimera]

What problems were those?

[chimera]

The major issues with NG are the 400-500 grams of CO2 per kwhr that are typically released in a SSGT plant. Better than coal, for sure, plus NG doesn't have anywhere near the sulfur content of coal.

But fugitive releases of methane are the really killer for NG. Methane is a terribly potent greenhouse gas. Its residence time in the atmosphere is less than CO2 but during the time it is out there it does between 30 to 70 times more damage to the ozone layer than CO2 on a per molecule basis. The Aliso Canyon (Porter Ranch) gas leak in CA wiped out all of the "gains" made by CA using windmills, solar panels, hamster wheels, pixie dust, and pagan rituals to offset use of carbon fuels

[VTenigma]

Yankee problems? Cooling tower supply lines leaking for many years in an underground tunnel contaminating soil and the Connecticut river with Cesium and Strontium. Cooling lines on a 40 year old wooden structure that collapsed causing soil and river contamination. Lost and unaccounted for nuclear material in the spent fuel pool. Unauthorized material in the spent fuel pool, on and on. All this is documented.

The undocumented stories come from friends that worked there (I live in the warning zone). Use of staff from outside areas of the plant for “hot” work during shutdowns to keep operational staff from over exposure. Known contaminated PPE not taken out of service (just marked by workers and told don’t use that one). Lots of cool stuff like that.

[woodbutcher1963]

We have spoken before.
How much snow did you get yesterday?

[chimera]

Can you provide the ADAMS accession numbers for the LERs associated with those events? The cooling tower problem was in 2007 and involved the fourth cell of the west cooling tower. The coolant flow through the cooling towers in a BWR-4 is condenser recirculation water and does not involve the primary coolant, so it contains no radioactivity above natural background. The plant continued to operate at 50% power because the loss of heat sink from the damage to one cell of one cooling tower did not exceed limits on heat removal capability.

[VTenigma]

What am I your research assistant? I’m recounting media reports that lead to the closure. I could care less about the details, the plant is closed, the revenue gone, the electric rates through the roof. You have questions, find the material yourself. Sorry to be a little cranky, but your demands are an imposition on my time.

[chimera]

No, I don't expect you to be my research assistant. It appeared that you had looked into the issues and might have had the information at hand. If you are relying on the popular media for accurate technical data, all I can say is, buyer beware. I have had occasion to work with reporters and my impression is that if they get their reporting on these subjects right 50% of the time, they are doing very well. Usually its a lot less, because they are usually more interested in crusading than reporting.

FWIW, your post impelled me to check on one of the issues that was a controversy, this business of "leaky" pipes that were said to be "buried" pipes. Based on the LERs I looked at, this is a classic example of what I noted above. The actual reports referenced "underground" pipes, and of course this was reported as "buried" pipes. They were not. They were run through underground utility tunnels. They were not in contact with soil or exposed to groundwater. That may seem to be an exceedingly fine technical distinction, but it makes all the difference in the world from an engineering viewpoint. Of course, the error on the part of those who misstated that they were "buried" was never acknowledged or retracted by those who did it.

Sorry to hear about your electric rates going up. I have heard that from others I know who live in the area. I thought Shumlin said the rates would go down when VT got rid of that "old nuke" and went to the shiny new "renewable" stuff (which is really based on ancient technology), wind turbines lining mountain ridges and the like. Wha hoppen?

[VTenigma]

Thanks for the reply. As I stated the long term leaky pipes were in a tunnel. They were not inspected for a long interval. I live within 20 miles of the plant. I’m going on recollections 1o years old, but that said there were substantial releases of Cesium and Strontium into the soil and Connecticut river as I stated. These releases were the final straw for the moonbat lobby to de-certify the plant. The plant had already been granted a license extension by the NRC when the VT public service board stepped in.The whole matter turned chaotic and Entergy said FU.

As to the renewable vaporware, I counted 2 whole days in January of viable solar activity. I don’t track Skittle power or unicorn farts so I can’t give you their contribution. What I do know is our electricity comes from Hydro Quebec at a premium, 42 cents per kwh winter rates and because HQ is hydro power the moonbats call that renewable for their 75% renewable standard.

[chimera]

Well, I certainly did not mean to minimize concerns about the 137Cs and 90Sr. Those are isotopic forms that are mobile in the environment and have more serious biological effects than tritium, which is a low-energy beta emitter, has a very short biological half-life, and is fairly innocuous as a health concern. The underground tunnel leakage was appropriately managed once discovered but it should not have happened in the first place. I seem to recall he issue with AOG component leakage was the subject of a generic NRL informational notice some time ago, which Entergy should have received. But if they did maybe they had, at least internally, decided at that point that they were throwing in the towel on VY and didn't give it high priority. That happened with one plant on a generic issue I was involved in flagging the NRC about, which involved isokinetic sampling of air ejection from aux building ducts which the company I worked for at the time had designed equipment to perform.

Man, 42 cents per kwhr? Sounds like HQ is really gouging the h*ll out of a captive customer base. And while VT is a very beautiful state, I can't think of a much worse venue for PV solar (I won't even mention the thermal solar boondoggle). And tearing up miles of ridge lines and old-growth forests (for access roads) for windmills that will have maybe 35% capacity factor at best is not exactly a prescription for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. States with RPS statutes on the books are starting to learn the hard way how misguided that is.

[VTenigma]

I live near the largest contiguous beech forest in the northeast. It is also one of the largest and best black bear habitats in New England and home to three nesting pairs of bald eagles that have developed here in the last ten years. So what do you think the greenies did to appease their fairy god. I know, you guessed. They mowed the protected ridgelines for miles to erect 400’ windmills that are lucky to achieve 20% uptime efficiency. That and the solar farms that sit covered in snow for a good part of the winter are a blight on the landscape IMO.

Oh yeah, as to the eagles, there was a bruhaha regarding a juvenile eagle found dead from blunt force trauma this summer with everyone running around trying to figure out what happened. If only they had looked over their shoulders and seen the giant windmills less than 2 miles away they might have gotten a clue.

As far as thermal solar goes I do support that here on a small scale as an adjunct source. Actually I support most small scale so called “alternative” energy production, but in this area I don’t support it as “base load power”. Hot standby is required which destabilizes the grid, wastes energy, and makes people believe alternate sources are viable base load power. It’s a dream, and a bad one at that.

[wildbill]

That is understandable as a minor flaw in NG. An unmitigated gas release can damage the ozone layer.

Well, how long will that damage last while humans are huddling in the dark burning wood to keep from freezing.

I may be wrong, but IMHO the sun controls our climate more than any other energy source. We can’t regulate the sun and are doing pretty good with the resources we have to make things as better as is possible for U>S humans to do.

[chimera]

Yes, it is a wonderful environment for indigenous wildlife and it is being devastated by the so-called renewable energy producers. A lot of those industrial wind companies more likely farm the subsidies than the wind. Between must-take provisions in RPSs, rigged capacity auctions,, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, and no requirement for cleanup of decommissioned wind farms, those companies are almost like robber barons of the energy business.

I should have been clear that I was referencing utility-scale thermal solar as a terrible boondoggle. The Ivanpah solar thermal plant in CA is a disaster from and economic and performance standpoint. Likewise Solana in AZ. APS was bamboozled into a long-term PPA with Solana for 14 cents per Kwh, which will likely cost ratepayers over 20 cents per Kwh when delivered. Ironic because just down the road the Palo Verde nuclear plant is putting power on the grid at a cost of around four cents per Kwh.

I seem to recall an article in one of the VT publications where the company that sells PV solar was bragging about covering an "unused" field with a few hundred acres of solar panels. Well, geez, all they did was take a formerly verdant and lush greenfield and turn it into a lifeless, muddy (or dusty) brownfield, that will be lucky to pull a 20% capacity factor in the NE climate.

And yes, those windmills are having a deadly effect on avian and other flying species. I remember reading about how some western states that have gone all-in on windmills have found out the hard way the significant impact of widespread windfarms is taking on avian and other flying species. In particular, they kill untold numbers of, ready for this, bats. A mature bat can consume up to 10,000 mosquito-sized insects each night, some of which are in fact mosquitoes. Evidently the swooshing sound of windmills used in power generation fools the sonic locating apparatus of the bat senses, causing them to fly right into the windmill blades.

[VTenigma]

A blight on the landscape and millions of birds gone.

[mewzilla]

Update...

NYSEG, RG&E customers: Here's how much your delivery rates will increase

Pay extra special attention to the 16th paragraph, where they buried the bad news about nat gas.

NYS is screwed.

[chasio649]

Buy from us inbred, ignorant stupid worthless southerners on the gulf....we’ll happily bend over and supply you...more than the mind could imagine.