Rhode Island, Back Against the Wall, Faces Energy Reality and Extends LNG Storage Permit But Won't Do More Than Punt

Guest post by Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News.

n 2019, the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board waived a licensing requirement for a “temporary” LNG storage facility in Portsmouth to prevent another gas outage episode from happening again (see With “Backs Against Wall” Rhode Island Approves LNG Facility). Board members complained they had no choice, that “we have our backs against the wall” and “people’s lives could be in danger” if they didn’t approve the LNG facility. The “temporary” facility has remained operating since that time.

Portsmouth LNG Storage Facility - Source: Google Earth

Earlier this year, Rhode Island Energy submitted a proposal to make the facility permanent instead of an ongoing temporary installation. State regulators ruled this week. They refused to make the LNG facility permanent. Instead, they opted to grant the facility a five-year license.

The regulators were between another rock and a hard place. The people who live nearby and for whom the natural gas from the facility keeps them warm in the winter oppose the facility. They prefer to freeze (see Rhode Island Neighbors Prefer Gas Outages to Permanent LNG Plant).

To keep the peace with the loons who live nearby, the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board decided to “split the baby in half” and give Rhode Island Energy what amounts to an ongoing license (five years) without calling it “permanent.”

State regulators gave long-awaited authorization Thursday to a long-term plan to expand liquefied natural gas storage on the Portsmouth-Middletown line.

But it’s not the carte blanche approval Rhode Island Energy wanted. Rather than a permanent LNG storage and equipment facility, the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board granted the company a five-year license to expand its storage capacity and equipment at its existing site on Old Mill Lane. The 3-0 vote also came with a host of conditions, alongside ongoing review of a proposed ban on new gas hookups on Aquidneck Island, and noise to the neighboring residents.

Rhode Island Energy’s predecessor, National Grid, revived the site in 2019 in the wake of an emergency outage that left about 7,000 Aquidneck Island customers without heat for a frigid January week. Since then, state regulators have granted a temporary waiver each winter (ending March 31) to house LNG equipment in case of emergency.

Seeking a more permanent solution, National Grid also applied in 2021 for a permanent license to expand the LNG storage and vaporization equipment facility. The Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board, which has final authority over proposals to create or significantly change state energy facilities including this one, has spent the last three years reviewing the proposal, through internal meetings and public hearings.

The $33.5 million project, more than double the initial cost estimate, would allow the state’s primary gas supplier to house 70,000 gallons of LNG onsite — enough to provide gas to the island for 37 continuous hours, or three days of up to six hours per day when considering capacity constraints, according to the license application. The permanent facility plans also call for relocating equipment away from the road and adding fencing and noise walls to minimize impacts to neighboring residents.

The gap between peak demand for gas and the existing supply is widely acknowledged, as is the vulnerability of a system reliant on a single, six inch pipe connecting the main gas pipeline to the island. But critics, including the Portsmouth and Middletown town councils and environmental groups, pushed for more environmentally friendly and less disruptive alternatives.

The Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General also weighed in with concern over the natural gas expansion amid the state’s ongoing decarbonization efforts, mandated by the 2021 Act on Climate Law.

Board Chairman Ron Gerwatowksi acknowledged the apparent contradiction.

“It doesn’t make sense to spend money to eliminate [demand] and, at the same time, allow gas demand to grow on the island,” he said during the Thursday meeting. “That would be like pumping water from a swimming pool and leaving the hose on at the same time.”

Alternative proposals included having the utility company offer to buy at least 13 homes directly surrounding the site due to noise complaints and forcing the company not to accept new gas customers on the island altogether.

The Energy Facility Siting Board did not take a definitive stand on these suggestions Wednesday, instead centering on whether a license should be granted, and for how long. A five-year initial duration, noting the projected two-year buildout, offers time for initial operational data as well as potential progress toward cheaper and more readily available clean heat alternatives, board members agreed.

As part of the approval, Rhode Island Energy will also have to file a plan with the related regulatory body, the Public Utilities Commission, outlining an island-specific energy efficiency plan to decrease reliance on natural gas. The first report must be submitted no later than June 1, 2025…

As for questions over noise and a moratorium on new gas hookups, regulators are leaving those decisions open for further review and input. Specifically, they plan to seek input from the Middletown, Portsmouth and Newport town councils on how banning Rhode Island Energy from taking on new gas customers on the island might impact development and area residents. Noise complaints are also better addressed once there is new data available showing the sound impacts of the expanded facility, which Rhode Island Energy has said will be less disruptive than the existing site due to relocation of equipment and new sound barriers.

In a June 5 memo to state regulators, Steven Boyajian, an attorney representing Rhode Island Energy, said the company would cooperate in providing regular check-ins or reporting on its operations, including noise studies once the new equipment and $500,000 sound wall are in place. However, Boyajian objected to the proposal of a ban on new gas hookups, citing the lack of legal authority for regulators to impose a moratorium as well as the additional costs to Aquidneck Island customers who would be forced to pay for alternative, more expensive heating sources like electric heat pumps…

The Conservation Law Foundation, which participated in the hearings on the proposal, praised state regulators for making “the best decision in a difficult situation.”

“Families and businesses on Aquidneck Island shouldn’t be left in the cold again,” staff attorney James Crowley said in a statement. “And they shouldn’t be left to rely on dirty, polluting fossil fuels like gas that accelerate climate change and harm our communities. The sooner we upgrade to clean energy sources and eliminate the need for LNG facilities like this, the better equipped we will be to protect our environment and the Rhode Island we know and love for future generations.”

The existing, temporary facility will open for the 2024-25 winter season, while construction on the expanded operation is underway.*

So, even with continued operations at the LNG site, it appears that Rhode Island Energy will need to block new gas customers from connecting to their system or risk not having enough gas and triggering another outage. That’s life in the liberal utopia of Rhode Island.

Editor's Note: It's worth noting the Conservation Law Foundation is part of the climate cabal that created this dilemma by opposing every reasonable energy solution for New England. It is financed by special interests such as the Simons family, hedgefunders invested in promoting solar development who created the dark money Sea Change Foundation to spread their influence among mostly unsuspecting environmental shills and NIMBYs.

It's easy to resist this influence unless you’re a blue state politician who only survives by demagoguery and political correctness, which is the case in nearly every urbanizing area where no one — rich or poor — has the slightest knowledge of how food and energy are produced. Urban elites also imagine they're tremendously smarter than the average bear and are blithely aware of their ignorance, which makes it all worse, of course.

Likewise unhelpful are companies such as National Grid that always play along with political correctness until it’s too late to fight effectively. Let me repeat; we are governed at every level by the worst people. What's needed are real leaders and there but a few to be found. Instead, we get this, and it's the only reason Rhode Island’s back is against the wall:

#RhodeIsland #LNG #Climate #NaturalGas #NationalGrid #EnergySecurity

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