FERC awarded East Tennessee Natural Gas a preliminary determination (PD) on non-environmental issues for its Patriot Project last week but not before Chairman Pat Wood warned the pipeline that he will oppose a certificate for it if landowner concerns aren’t squarely addressed.

East Tennessee “has some work to do before I [will be able] to sign off on the final order…The level of landowner opposition is substantial, and it probably [does] not need to be,” said Wood at the regular Commission meeting on Wednesday. His warning to improve dealings with landowners wasn’t directed just at East Tennessee, he noted, but at all energy facilities.

Traditionally, the environmental impact statement (EIS) has been used to tackle landowner concerns “frontally,” but Wood believes it has become a “cumbersome” and “contentious” process. “I do think that we have here…a more proactive opportunity” to find a “better way to address landowner issues,” he said. “I strongly encourage the pipeline industry to use [the pre-filing] process to allow landowners to be identified, alternatives examined and problems resolved before the application is filed.”

Under the current pre-filing process, pipeline applicants are advised to file explanations of a project’s benefits, identify all the agencies that will be involved, and provide information on route planning, landowner contacts and agency consultations that have taken place. Companies also are encouraged to develop web sites to provide public information on their projects.

New infrastructure facilities “don’t just happen by fiat. They have to happen as part of a messy, but well-managed process,” Wood said during a press briefing following the FERC meeting.

When asked if he thought gas pipelines were doing a good job of dealing with landowners, Wood said, “I’m not sure we are” at this time. “I mean we’re not going through downtown New York City, but yet [with the Patriot Project] we’re going through relatively rural parts of southern Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina that got an unusually large amount of response [against the project] in my estimation from having seen the numbers.”

If awarded a certificate, East Tennessee’s Patriot project will add 510 MMcf/d of capacity and will include an extension to serve two new power generation plants, regions currently without gas service (southwestern Virginia) and traditional demand growth in Virginia and North Carolina.

The $289 million project entails an expansion of East Tennessee’s existing mainline system in Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. Patriot will include about 85 miles of new 20- and 24-inch looping, 25 miles of 24-inch pipeline relays to replace existing 8-inch pipe, 77 miles of uprates, five new compressor stations, added compression at six existing compressor stations, and associated facilities.

It calls for the construction of a 93.6-mile, 24-inch extension from central Virginia to an interconnection with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s mainline in Rockingham County, NC. A salt cavern storage facility is being developed by parent Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) and NUI Corp. in Saltville, VA, to bring added value and options to shippers subscribing to the extended transportation services.

The combined extension/expansion would boost East Tennessee’s existing design capacity of 700 MMcf/d to more than 1.2 Bcf/d. The Patriot project plans to increase East Tennessee’s capacity in three phases: by 130 MMcf/d in mid-2003; to 310 MMcf/d in November 2003; and to 510 MMcf/d by January 2004. Initial service is expected to begin on May 1, 2003, and all facilities are due to be completed on Jan. 1, 2004.

Seven gas shippers, mostly power generators, marketers and LDCs, have subscribed to 87% of the proposed new capacity, or 446 MMcf/d, under long-term contracts.

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