FERC last week told Columbia Energy Group to check the lifesigns of the $650 million Millennium Pipeline project and provide adiagnosis within 20 days so the Commission can complete work on theproject’s final enviromental impact statement. The 442-mile projectwould bring about 714 MMcf/d of gas from Canada under Lake Erie tothe New York metropolitan area.

In a letter to Columbia Energy’s David Pentzein, FERC’s DanielM. Adamson, director of the office of energy projects, said thepipeline looks like it barely has a pulse. “I am concerned aboutthe opposition from New York State to the proposed constructionalong the Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Edison)electric transmission right-of-way in Westchester County, NY, andopposition from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to theproposed crossing of the Hudson River in Haverstraw Bay,” saidAdamson. “Further, a merger of the Columbia Energy Group withNiSource Inc. was recently announced and we are interested in theplans for the continued development of the project.”

Adamson noted that the New York Public Service Commission iscalling for a rejection of the pipeline routing near Con Edison’smajor transmission right of way (See NGI, Jan. 31). The PSC filedan emergency motion in January urging the Commission to hold off onapproving the pipeline until an alternate route is found.

The New York State Reliability Council also attacked theproject’s routing along the Con Edison right of way, noting infiled comments with FERC that the 345 kV transmission corridor”happens to be the most important and most critical electric powerinterconnection between the major load center of New York city andthe rest of the eastern interconnection” (see NGI, March 13). Ithas six 345 kV high voltage transmission lines and a total thermalcapacity of 5,000 MW.

In addition, the NMFS said the Haverstraw Bay crossing proposedby Millennium would seriously damage an ecologically sensitivearea, and the construction methods proposed would violate the NewYork Coastal Management program.

Earlier this month during a conference call on the proposedColumbia-NiSource merger, NiSource CEO Gary Neale stated hisconcerns about the project’s route and questioned the need for sucha major pipeline when NiSource’s own Crossroads Pipeline couldserve growing demand in the Northeast with a much small expansionproject and at a fraction of the cost of Millennium (see NGI, March6).

Adamson told Millennium to provide a response within 20 days.”Millennium needs to document its strategies for resolving theimpasse… You must evaluate and provide evidence that the PSCs,NYSRC’s and NMFS’s issues can be resolved so that we can completeour final environmental impact statement and be in a position tomake clear recommendations to the Commission on how to proceed,” hesaid, adding FERC would be happy to schedule a technical conferenceand invite all concerned parties to address these issues.

But Columbia spokesman Karl Brock told NGI the project is stillalive despite the beating its been taking in New York andWashington and the trauma from the proposed Columbia-NiSourcemerger. Brock said the company is preparing a response and intendsto assure FERC that these issues will be resolved.

“First of all we remain fully committed to developing theMillennium project. We are confident that we will be able toresolve what seems to be FERC’s three concerns about the project,”he said, referring to the two routing issues and the impact of themerger. “We’ve had a number of meetings with the NYPSC and thatdiscussion is ongoing… We are exploring alternatives in routingand construction design that would address the Public ServiceCommission’s concerns as well as make the project viable.

“Millennium remains the most viable and promising prospect forgetting new gas supplies to the Northeast, which is something that[has come up recently] in testimony before Congress,” Brock noted.”Representatives of the State of New York have advocatedconstruction of new pipelines as part of the solution to addressthe concerns about the high price of energy and the availability ofenergy in that region. So the need is there. It’s just a matter ofironing out the remaining issues.”

Rocco Canonica

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