HARTFORD, Conn. — The nation’s top energy official delivered a blunt message Monday to a Connecticut audience of energy executives, regulators, environmentalists and others who already know that fuel heating and cooling homes and businesses and running power plants in New England is among the costliest in the nation.
Ernest Moniz, U.S. secretary of energy, stopping in Providence, R.I., and Hartford in a months-long federal review of energy issues, said New England doesn’t share the good news developing in the field of energy with the rest of the country.
“Out there, in much of the country the talk is about the energy revolution, the abundance of energy that we have, the way that we are in fact drawing upon new resources … promoting renewables, at the same time reducing carbon emissions,” he said.
“But yet if we come here, it’s not a discussion of abundance. It’s a discussion of, in particular, infrastructure constraints,” he said.
Speaking to an audience of about 150 in Hartford, Moniz said that in New England, piping in natural gas and otherwise delivering heat or electricity is limited by a lack of delivery systems.
During the severe winter, natural gas prices soared to more than $120 per million British thermal units from about $5 in the summer. The spike was blamed on strong demand, a lack of pipeline systems, limited regional liquefied natural gas deliveries and inadequate storage.
Energy prices in New England often are “very volatile and much higher than other parts of the country,” Moniz said.
Moniz knows New England. A physicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Moniz said even when fuel is available, it cannot be moved in emergencies, such as Superstorm Sandy in October and November 2012, because of power outages.
New England governors announced a plan in January to expand natural gas use. The governors of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont asked the region’s grid operator for technical help to seek proposals to build transmission equipment and public works to deliver enough electricity to serve 1.2 million to 3.6 million homes. The states also asked the system operator, ISO-New England, to devise a way to finance the project.
Gordon van Welie, ISO president, said Monday that because many non-gas-fired plants are to be retired beginning this year and public works improvements are scheduled to start years from now, New England’s power system will be in a “precarious position” for a few years.
Anthony Buxton, general counsel for the Industrial Energy Consumer Group, a trade association of industrial facilities, said he told Moniz in his visit to Providence that 2 billion cubic feet per day of more pipeline capacity into New England is needed to tame natural gas price spikes.
Connecticut director William Dornbos of Environment Northeast, an advocacy group, urged Moniz and state policymakers to seek ways to cut demand via greater energy efficiency and to avoid major capital projects such as interstate natural gas pipelines or electric transmission lines.
Following his appearance, Moniz, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Molloy and Representatives John Larson and Elizabeth Esty spoke to the press outside the main chamber of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection building about other energy alternatives such as fracking.
“Let me emphasize, I am not a proponent of fracking. I am a proponent of developing our energy system so as to address climate change, energy security and economic growth. The question is, within that, what is the mix?” Moniz asked. “Within that, as President Obama said in his State of the Union, ‘all-of-the-above’ is the approach that is being pursued. One of the key instruments of that approach is the continuing development of natural gas, in particular.”
Fracking has been controversial in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A ban was brought forth several years ago, and environmental activists continue to fight against the introduction of the procedure to the state. Moniz, however, believes it is doable.
“Hydrolic fracturing continues to be a process that we find the environmental challenges of are manageable. They are challenging, but they are manageable,” he said. “What it means is, we have to have best practices being followed all the time. In fact, the number one challenge in hydrolic fracturing has been the rather common issue of properly completing the wells. We know how to do that. We have to do it.”
“I am pleased that Secretary Moniz was in New England today to discuss our region’s long-term energy strategy. As we prepare to celebrate Earth Day, it was a timely visit,” said Congressman Richard E. Neal (D-MA). “I strongly favor an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy that utilizes all of America’s natural resources. This comprehensive approach has already generated significant investment in our domestic energy industry, helped create jobs, and reduced U.S. dependency on foreign oil.”
Neal added that the “all-of-the-above” policy also reduces air pollution and protects the environment.
“If we truly are to become energy independent, a clean energy future needs to be embraced,” he said. “Secretary Moniz is correct to encourage us in the Northeast to find better ways in which we can more effectively deliver these commodities to the consumer.”
