FERC continued to smile upon natural gas pipeline projects right up until the very end of last week. Late Friday, the agency dismissed a plea by a Florida citizens advocacy group to stay Florida Gas Transmission’s (FGT) construction of a new compressor station as part of the pipeline’s Phase V expansion project in the state.

Citizens For A Better Thonotosassa, a group of citizens and landowners in Hillsborough County, FL, urged the Commission to halt the construction of the compressor station in their county, while it considered their request to re-locate the proposed station to alternate sites. They claimed that siting the compressor station in Hillsborough County would adversely impact their interests.

“Although we commend Citizens for their efforts to objectively choose an alternative site for [Compressor] Station 27, we regret that we cannot approve their preferred alternative sites,” FERC said in the order [CP00-40-008]. The original, FERC-approved site for the compressor station “is preferable,” it noted. “In addition, given the differing opinions expressed by residents of Thonotosassa as to the best site, there is a reasonable potential that moving the compressor site would simply shift the burden from one group of landowners to another group that would be equally opposed to the new site. We also note that no state or local agencies have indicated objections to the approved site.”

In an amendment to its Phase V Expansion application filed in August 2000, FGT proposed the compressor station to serve an additional customer, Tampa Electric Co. The Florida utility is in the process of converting its coal-fired and fuel oil generation facilities in the state to natural gas to satisfy the terms of an environmental settlement with federal and state regulatory officials to reduce overall emissions from its power plants.

Specifically, Tampa Electric is installing high-efficiency, combined-cycle technology to replace coal-fired units at its Bayside Power Station, and will use natural gas to reduce the use of fuel oil at its Polk and Hardee generation facilities, the order said.

The proposed compressor station is part of FGT’s $452 million Phase V Expansion project, which is being built in four stages. The second stage, which was completed last spring, added approximately 64 miles of underground gas pipeline, increased compression by approximately 103,000 horsepower at new or existing compressor stations, and provided 298 MMcf/d of additional transportation capacity. The entire Phase V expansion is expected to provide a total of 428 MMcf/d of new gas transportation capacity, and is targeted for completion in mid-2003.

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