Fossil fuel company wants to expand gas pipeline in Northeast

At a time when many states in the Northeast are actively trying to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels to help fight climate change, the company that owns a major natural gas pipeline in the region wants to expand the system and bring in more fracked gas.

Dubbed “Project Maple,” the proposal from Enbridge — a large Canadian energy company with fossil fuel infrastructure throughout the U.S. — would involve substantial upgrades on the Algonquin Gas Transmission line. This pipeline runs from northern New Jersey through parts of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and into Massachusetts, where feeds into the Weymouth Natural Gas Compressor Station and then connects to another pipeline north of Boston.

“I’m skeptical of Enbridge’s claims that this project would be beneficial to the region,” said Kyle Murray, the Massachusetts program director at Acadia Center. “As we saw this past winter, with dramatic energy price spikes occurring in the natural gas market, our region is already over reliant upon natural gas for its heating and electric needs. Expanding this pipeline as the region is quickly moving to electrify its heating sources and develop more renewable generation makes little sense.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.