Canadian Energy Combine Seeks Expansion of Pipeline Infrastructure Through the People’s Republic
Canadian Energy Combine Seeks Expansion of Pipeline Infrastructure Through the People’s Republic
Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline conglomerate currently under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission review, has proposed a significant expansion of natural gas transmission capacity across New England — a plan that would route new infrastructure through Massachusetts and increase the Commonwealth’s dependence on fossil fuel delivery systems the Healey administration has formally pledged to eliminate. The proposal arrives as the Premier’s own climate roadmap calls for accelerated electrification and a managed wind-down of gas distribution networks, creating a collision between federally-permitted private infrastructure and state energy doctrine that Beacon Hill has not yet been asked to resolve.
The expansion would serve regional winter peak demand — the same supply-gap argument pipeline proponents have deployed for a decade — while opponents argue the buildout locks ratepayers into stranded asset liability for thirty to fifty years. No Massachusetts legislation has been filed in response. The People’s Legislature has not yet been asked to contribute its opinion. It will, presumably, be informed when the time is appropriate.
The conflict is structurally familiar: federal permitting authority preempts state objection, leaving the Commonwealth Soviet in the position of a subcommittee that was not invited to the relevant meeting.
Source: Commonwealth Beacon
