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.
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Supply and Demand. To increase the supply (or decrease the demand) just increase the price.
The utility can say, “We are unable to obtain additional natural gas. To decrease the usage and allow all customers to get some, we’re doubling the price, to encourage conservation. Please contact the Governor if this is unacceptable to you.”
That can only carry things so far. Come a really cold and miserable winter day (say during blizzard conditions) the people aren’t going to be thinking about how much the bill will be next month, they’ll only be thinking of the conditions they’re currently facing as they all attempt to heat their homes only to find that there isn’t enough gas in the system to supply them all.
Sadly, the energy delivery market is not so free from economic encumbrances to allow that course of action. It is a state sanctioned quasi-monopoly that is privately owned, but governmentally regulated.
I suspect (as it is here in CA) that the price of gas is controlled by state law and the utilities cannot unilaterally increase the price.
This is what happens when the government seizes de-facto control of the monopoly. They set the price, they determine who gets deliveries, and they preclude any and all competition.
Even if they could just raise the price, there needs to be a corresponding increase in supply. Want to make any bets how long it would take to build, certify, support, and schedule enough trains of LNG tank cars to supply the shortfall, which would occur in the worst weather to be doing all that?
Utilities work because they plan ahead, unless they can’t.
You’d think with all that easy shale production in NY……oh, never mind..
Didn’t Chavez and Maduro have the same plan for Venezuelan oil? Yea, that worked out pretty well.
Hmm. That’s interesting. Adding adequate hookups to keep people warm in the winter and able to cook their food is a no-no, but then hooking them up on lines that that the pressure too low to deliver the NG safely is what follows. I guess Cuomo just thinks that heat suddenly exists in cold weather because someone flipped a switch? I’m mystified as to why, in Brooklyn of all places, anyone should be deprived of basic utilities in the first place, but if any of those people voted for that marone, they got what they asked for.
I am quite glad that I live in a place where the gas and electric utilities are – so far – not affected by the idiocy of politicians with no understanding of how utilities work. I”m also glad that my gas bill is affordable, in view of that proposal a while back to raise the per them cost basis by a factor of some thousands, for no reason other than they thought they could. Yeah, that didn’t go very far, did it?
If this ignorant and apparently insane mindset – that all natural things like NG are going to somehow “destroy” the planet — ever dies back to the algae bloom that birthed it, would you all please let me know? I’d appreciate it. I’m not exactly thrilled with the idea of chopping wood to cook and keep warm, but if I have to start that, I will.
Sara – the kind of mindset that thinks heat is magic and unrelated to fuel supply is also the kind of mindset that would legislate against cutting wood “to preserve the environment”. You must be lucky in where you live…
Many on the left, not all but many, believe in emotions over physical laws. They believe the laws of physics don’t apply to their wishes. It is a sad situation.
It’s called magical thinking.
Non-magical thinking is white supremacy. I wish I was kidding.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/05/what-is-white-supremacy.php
Some days the headlines seem ripped from “1984”, other days it’s “Atlas Shrugged.” Today it’s the latter.
And don’t forget “Brave New World”.
The heating oil dealers association thanks you.
Some folks will get the clever idea to fire up the BBQ inside to cook and warm up the house. That seems to happen every winter with tragic consequences. I wonder if Cuomo can be held liable?
People will buy wood-burning stoves and chop down Central Park.
Is Yoko okay with this use of fossil fuels?
Who cares what that cow thinks? Cut off her heat and see how SHE likes it!!!
Yes, as long as she can sue users for copyright infringements.
2013 a new political party managed to enter parliament in Austria. I was very close to some of the principles at the time when the party formed and stayed close quite some time while they became a feature of Austrian politics. They promised to stay close to the needs of the people and to push for changes. Years later I met one of their leaders in the corridors of the parliament and he asked me why I did not come to see them anymore. I told him that even I was amazed about how fast they had grown used to the perks of power. In record time they had shed their roots and became the same arrogant, removed snobs as all the others. And thats the way it is all over the world. Cuomo could not understand reality if it slapped him in the face. The needs of the people are nuisances at best. And a paper solution is a solution.
When the pressure drops start by discontinuing the supply to the mayor’s private residence(s) and his office.
Secretly install constrictors in “selected” supply lines……..
“Atlas Shrugged” never rang more true.
When the imaginary gas produces imaginary heat, the imaginary angry people will show up at the capital and demand shelter with heat. One can always hope the imaginary angry people glue themselves to the capital doors and to each other, for warmth, of course.
Most politicians do not have the intellectual capabilities of a four-year-old child which is why they enthusiastically embrace the idea of the fraudulent ‘Global Warming/Climate Change’ propaganda and fail to understand the science it violates.
How relevant is the information in this article?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/11/turns-out-wind-and-solar-have-a-secret-friend-natural-gas/
Why does this article remind me of old Adolf in the bunker under Berlin barking out orders for the deployment of armies that no longer exist and generals who no longer obey?
Remember, this guy is Fredo’s smart dumb brother.
Now if I were scripting the future:
The winter after the hookups were installed would be severe for a prolonged period.
In the attempt to supply NG to everyone, no one gets enough on a reliable basis to keep their homes heated.
Home Depot, Lowes, and Amazon sell out of electric heaters.
Everyone tries to supplement their NG heat by using those electric heaters.
The electric powercos can not handle the demand surge, and begin rolling blackouts.
Pandemonium ensues.
Politicians are stripped, tarred and feathered, and dumped in the cold. Someone notes that tar is a fossil fuel. Everyone cheers.
Were I a heating contractor, I would put together a package to convert furnaces to dual fuel (NG and Propane) and aggressively market it as a your can freeze next winter, or you can pay me now.
So another socialist sets his state up to Beta test “The New Green Deal”. Was up in Western NY this week. Fall colors just coming in well now.
I say hook them up and let them freeze in the dark.
Every winter there is someone someplace that attempts to warm a confined space with charcoal.
Officials should start ASAP to warn folks not to do this. Insofar as many big cities have residents with no, or little, English this warning fails to reach some people.
Carbon monoxide from burning coal, wood, charcoal, oil, kerosene, propane, and natural gas, is dangerous at low concentrations. It is not CO2. Chemistry is your friend.
One estimate: “In the US, more than 400 Americans die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, 4,000 are hospitalized, and another 20,000 visit emergency rooms due to exposure.”
Related to this article (from Feb 14, 2019) …
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Gas and Electric (HG&E) has imposed a moratorium on new natural gas connections for residential and business customers, citing no increases in pipeline capacity by Berkshire Gas and Columbia Gas of Massachusetts.
In a statement, HG&E said the “load has grown significantly and is now operating at capacity during peak periods,” which triggered the moratorium on new gas connections. A Tennessee Gas pipeline,
known as the Northampton Lateral, became “severely constrained” as a result of high demand in the last 20 years.
Berkshire and Columbia began implementing service moratoriums in 2014, which were also related to the Northampton Lateral capacity problem.
HG&E suggested existing customers could improve their existing service by replacing aging gas furnaces, stoves or water heaters, but only if the “load profile does not increase and the service was active as of Dec. 31, 2018.”
The utility said it could accommodate specific commercial and industrial requests, which also are dependent on load profile and “the ability for those new customers to utilize dual fuel during peak periods on HG&E’s interruptible rate.”
HG&E further stated that while the nation’s natural gas supply is plentiful, the current pipeline infrastructure is lacking.
“Recent proposals that would increase natural gas capacity in the region have been met with opposition, and the current pipeline constraints are causing significant adverse environmental and economic impacts on the region’s ratepayers,” read the statement.
Neighbor to Neighbor, a Holyoke-based group, opposes increased capacity, citing environmental and safety concerns. Several members of the group recently addressed the Holyoke City Council’s Development and Government Relations Committee chaired by Ward 4 Councilor David K. Bartley.
James Lavelle, HG&E’s manager, countered by stating that New England utilities burned 2 million barrels of oil during a 15-day “cold spell” in January 2018, which exceeded the total consumed in 2017.
Holyoke Gas and Electric imposes moratorium on new natural gas service – masslive.com
https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/02/holyoke_gas_and_electric_impos.html
Why could the utility not provide the gas hookups via low pressure shut-off valves set to trip at a pressure somewhat higher than the shut-offs on the supply mains?
If the utility provided full disclosure regarding the limitations of the new connections, and the customers agreed to the reduced reliability and the added cost of including shut-offs, they could be added without jeopardizing supplies to current customers.
Just saying.
That’s called an “interruptible rate”. Makes sense, it amounts to we’ll-sell-to-you-really-cheap-only-until-we-get-a-better-offer-from-someone-else. Industrial customers enter into such agreements in plenty.
WOULD FRAKKING SOLVE THE PIPELINE PROBLEM? Fredo’s older, dumber brother probably thinks I’M the idiot!
If you like Banana Republics,
And getting caught in the pain . . . .
If your goat yoga goat,
has a bigger brain
So everytime the various gas units shut down due to low pressure the utility servicemen will be called to relight pilot lights. What a mess that will create. The insanity of liberals is becoming very dangerous.