The head of Maryland Department of the Environment Ben Grumbles sent a letter last Thursday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking the agency to hold its evaluation of the application made by Columbia Gas Transmission LLC, Potomac crossing pipeline until the MDE can submit special conditions on water quality to be included in the Corp’s authorization. The MDE plans to complete its review in one to two weeks.
As you recall, Columbia Gas Transmission is proposing a new 3.9 mile, 8-inch diameter pipeline to connect Mountaineer Gas (the West Virginia consumer gas distribution company) to gas supplies in Pennsylvania. The proposed pipeline will be run about 72 feet below the river bed. The new pipeline will bring gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and Ohio to a new proposed Mountaineer Gas pipeline, The Mountaineer Xpress project.
Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. (Columbia) is planning to construct and operate approximately 165 miles of pipeline and three new compressor stations in addition to upgrading three existing compressor stations and one regulating station. The project called the Mountaineer XPress project (MXP) would be able to move an additional 2.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale production areas to commercial and consumer markets on the Columbia Gas Transmission system, including markets in western West Virginia. West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday approved a needed storm-water permit for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project, so regulatory approvals in West Virginia are moving ahead.
The request by MDE Secretary Grumbles told the Corps in a letter that the state “has identified potential water quality and public interest factors,” the protestors encircling the Governor’s Mansion in Annapolis, that could warrant special conditions being placed on the TransCanada Corp. project. Proponents say the pipeline will be safe and will help bring economic development to an area that needs it. Opponents say the project will threaten drinking water supplies and further commit the region to fossil fuels. The Potomac River is the source water for drinking water for the Washington Metropolitan area. Protestors have spent the past week protesting at the Governor’s Mansion in Maryland.
The abundance of shale natural gas coming from the Marcellus is expected to keep prices for natural gas low for the foreseeable future and has created a glut in natural gas. Building gas pipelines to transport fuel from places like Pennsylvania to other regions can be difficult and it will be interesting to see what happens. In Pennsylvania and Ohio power companies are building new generation gas fired power plants using the Marcelles shale natural gas to replace coal fired plants.
The new plants use a gas and steam turbine together to produce more electricity per gas BTU. Coal plant generate about twice the CO2 per megawatt of power and have higher particulate pollution than gas fired electrical power plants. Electric demand is not growing overall nationally, but the closing of aging coal plants has left the PJM (Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland) power grid short of power. In the past three years 9.3 gigawatts of coal generating capacity has been retired while 8.7 gigawatts have been added so far, but currently there is 8.6 gigawatts of natural-gas electrical power plants under construction in Pennsylvania and Ohio. This could utilize the natural gas without the need for transport by either pipeline or train.
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