While the sheer number of pending and projected natural gaspipeline projects may be staggering, that’s not what sets themapart from projects that preceded them. Rather, the distinguishingfactor is that they’re coming at a time when the “complexity andvolume” of environmental issues and the level of landowneranti-project sentiment have reached unparalleled heights, says atop FERC official.

In a nutshell, FERC has authorized about 13 Bcf/d, or just over4,000 miles, of new pipeline capacity during the past three years.Still pending at the Commission is another 8 Bcf/d, or 4,000 miles,of new pipeline projects. And in the next year or so, it expectsthe industry to file projects totaling more than 7 Bcf/d, whichrepresents about 1,200 additional miles of pipe facilities, saidRandolph E. Mathura, director of the Division of PipelineCertificates for FERC’s Office of Energy Projects, at GasMart/Power2000 in Denver, CO, last week.

If you add all of the projects that were certificated in thepast three years, as well as those pending and anticipated, to theEnergy Information Administration’s estimate for current pipelinecapacity (123 Bcf/d), “you can see that’s an increase of systemcapacity [of] about 23% in just a few years time,” he noted.

For the longer term, the Interstate Natural Gas Association ofAmerica (INGAA) projects an average of 1,500 to 3,000 miles of pipewill have to be built each year between now and 2010 to reach that”magic 30 Tcf” demand number, Mathura said. That’s an additional16,000 miles of new pipeline, which would be an 180% increase overthe construction activity of the past five years. At the same time,the National Petroleum Council anticipates an estimated 30,000miles of new and replacement pipelines must be built by 2015 tomeet projected requirements of 150 Bcf/d.

“Now historically speaking, I would agree that this expectedlevel of activity is not unprecedented. But what is significantabout it is the increasing complexity and volume of environmentalissues we’re dealing with. Moreover, these issues are beingchampioned by more different types of parties than you’ve ever seenat FERC proceedings,” Mathura said.

FERC at one time thought the Kern River and Iroquois pipelineprojects were “highly controversial,” but that’s nothing comparedto “what we see in the ANR Independence [and] Transco cases.” TheIndependence Pipeline project elicited more than 6,000 letters ofopposition last year, mostly from landowners

The majority of the new intervenors are private landowners. “Notonly are the issues that they’re raising difficult and complex, butthe folks are emotional and intense about these issues, and arewilling to do whatever it takes to pursue them,” Mathura told theenergy executives at the conference.

The landowners also are becoming more organized and aren’tafraid to ask their political leaders for help, he said.”…[W]e’re seeing more and more citizen groups being formed andactively participating. We’re seeing a lot of involvement in ourcases by local, state and U.S. congressional representatives.”

The landowners, Mathura noted, “are demanding recognition oftheir private property rights. They want some assurance that it[the taking of their property] is really in the greater publicinterest of the nation. And they want to see hard evidence of thisin our cases…..”

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