Are Appalachian Pipelines Being Built to Increase Exports?
“There are at least 15 massive new fracked gas pipelines planned or under development in the Appalachian region, with more proposed for other regions. These new pipelines are expected to lead to enormous increases in fracking and new threats to clean air, clean water, and the climate. They would also increase consumer costs and the use of eminent domain, whereby pipeline companies are allowed to seize private property from individual Americans. Even if a pipeline has not been proven necessary, and even if it ends up transporting gas for export rather than domestic use, the owners can make a guaranteed 14% profit, pass on their on their costs to consumers, and take land from families and farms.
The owners of most of these new proposed pipelines claim they will provide natural gas to domestic customers, but there’s no proven need for them, and most of them are designed to connect to four massive existing interstate pipeline networks that transport gas between the Northeast and the Gulf of Mexico region.
These four massive pipeline systems (Columbia, Tennessee, Texas Eastern, and Transco) were originally built to bring gas from the Gulf region north to areas that did not produce their own natural gas. But now that the Marcellus/Utica shale region of Appalachia has become a powerhouse producer of dirty energy, producing almost 30% of the nation’s natural gas, these pipelines can transport gas in the opposite direction, from north to south.”
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Mall, Amy. NRDC 13 March 2018.