Harvard’s Conservation Commission joined 73 other commissions across the state in signing a letter that asks Governor Charlie Baker to end his support for natural gas pipelines, in particular the Access Northeast pipeline.
Backed by Eversource Energy and National Grid, Access Northeast is a multibillion-dollar project that the Boston Globe called “a cornerstone of Governor Charlie Baker’s energy policy.” It would run through Connecticut and the northwest corner of Rhode Island, cross into Massachusetts south of Uxbridge, and swing northeast to Boston. Branches would extend west to Route 190 north of Worcester and east to Route 128 south of Boston.
The conservation commissions’ letter reads in part, “We need safe, reliable, and affordable energy for our residents, businesses, and municipalities. Our state can—and must—achieve those goals by investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, rather than in more fossil fuel use that is warming our planet and creating significant problems for our cities and towns.”
The letter goes on, “New interstate pipelines create permanent cuts in the landscape, traversing conservation lands, crossing wetlands, despoiling vistas and forests, and disrupting farms, residential properties, and communities with little regard for community plans or needs.”
The letter was signed by conservation commissions from New Ashford in the Berkshires to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod.
The Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, in an accompanying statement, summarized a study published in February by Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge that said Access Northeast would cost consumers $6.6 billion, not the $3.2 billion stated by its backers. Moreover, the study asserted, “The overall need for natural gas in New England’s electric sector is expected to decline dramatically,” leaving the region with surplus capacity even in existing pipelines.
In its press release, the Harvard Conservation Commission called on Baker “to increase the incentives and support for clean, locally produced, renewable energy from solar [power], and greatly expand access to community-shared solar such as the Harvard Solar Garden.” The commission noted that solar power also creates jobs in Massachusetts communities.
Last August, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court struck down a plan under which electricity customers would have borne a large share of the cost for building Access Northeast and other new interstate pipelines. At the time, Eversource spokeswoman Caroline Pretyman was cited in the Boston Globe as saying the project would have saved utility customers $1 billion in the long term, as well as assuring an adequate supply of natural gas to keep power plants running on the coldest days of winter.
Access Northeast is a separate project from Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (also known as Northeast Energy Direct), which was suspended a year ago for lack of commitments from prospective customers. That project, which was also supported by Baker, would originally have run through Massachusetts a little north of Harvard, but it was later rerouted to go through southern New Hampshire.
