Buppert: Experts find pipelines aren’t needed

Below is an excerpt from Senior Attorney Greg Buppert’s op-ed in The Roanoke Times Sunday. The piece highlights a new report from Synapse Energy Economics showing that current natural gas infrastructure can meet regional demand at least through 2030. This finding raises important question about the need for two proposed natural gas pipelines that would cross through western Virginia on their way from West Virginia to the Carolinas.

Read the full op-ed here.

Proponents declare these projects are needed to keep the lights on and homes heated. Many regulators appear to be taking the utilities at their word.

They shouldn’t.

In 2015, the Department of Energy reported that using existing pipelines in our region could reduce the need for new ones. Now new evidence suggests the highly controversial Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines are, in fact, not needed.

A recent report from Synapse Energy Economics revealed that, with upgrades and modification, the existing system of underground pipelines and other gas infrastructure could supply our region’s natural gas needs at least through 2030.

…We need a meaningful dialog about these pipeline proposals centered not so much on where they should go, but whether they should go anywhere at all.