MAY 17, 2015
The U.S. is producing record amounts of natural gas, a fuel
widely viewed as cleaner and preferable to coal for electric power generation.
But building the infrastructure necessary to bring that fuel to market is
increasingly difficult for the industry.
That was the message from industry executives at an
"Infrastructure Week" event held in Washington by America's Natural
Gas Alliance, an industry group.
Among them was Diane Leopold, the president of Dominion
Energy, whose company is proposing a 550-mile gas pipeline from West Virginia
to Virginia and North Carolina and just got final government approval to export
liquefied natural gas from a plant in Maryland.
"While this may be the most exciting time in our
history, it also may be the most challenging," Leopold said, citing an
"increase in high-intensity opposition" to infrastructure projects.
"It is becoming louder, better funded and more sophisticated."
As she spoke, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
which issues permits for interstate pipelines and LNG export facilities, was
meeting in a session that had been rescheduled to avoid large-scale protests
planned later this month by critics of hydraulic fracturing. The technology has
unlocked gas from shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
ANGA President Marty Durbin suggested that opponents of
projects like Dominion's Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Cove Point LNG export
plant are taking a cue from resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline, the $7
billion project that would carry oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to the
U.S. Gulf Coast.
TransCanada, the pipeline company that would build Keystone,
has been awaiting U.S. government approval for more than six years now, with no
decision in sight. Opposition by landowners along the route of the proposed
pipeline and environmental groups has turned Keystone into one of the most
controversial energy projects ever in the U.S.
Similar opposition is shaping up against the ACP project.
"These aren't new issues," Durbin said of
questions over safety and property access that are common to energy projects.
"These are things that pipeline developers have had to deal with for a
long time. But we've seen a change in the debate. I hesitate to put it this
way, but call it the Keystone-ization of every pipeline project that's out
there, that if you can stop one permit, you can stop the development of fossil
fuels. That's changing the way we have to manage these projects."
Dominion Energy, a subsidiary of Richmond, Va.-based
Dominion Resources, is already feeling the heat over the Atlantic Coast
Pipeline, which it proposed last year. Just recently, opponents targeted
Dominion Resources' annual shareholders meeting.
"We need more than good laws and regulations if
important infrastructure projects are to get built," said Leopold, who
added she was speaking out to "give voice to an industry."
"We in the natural gas industry need to speak clearly,
speak effectively and — when necessary — speak loudly," she added.
"We need to make all stakeholders aware of how critical it is to our
society that we move forward with growing and improving our natural gas
infrastructure."
Dominion Energy stepped up its communications strategy with
Cove Point, which still faces legal challenges from environmental groups. The
company conducted its largest outreach effort in its 100-year history,
including 25,000 "fact books," 15,000 phone calls and an extensive
social-media campaign.
"We advertised so often and in so many places that
project opponents became annoyed that they could not escape it," she said.
Dominion Energy plans to build on its Cove Point experience
to promote the ACP pipeline, which would deliver gas to six utilities in
Virginia and North Carolina and cost an estimated $4.5 billion to $5 billion to
build. The project is in the early stages of the permit process at FERC.
"Today, communications and stakeholder outreach is a
strategic skill and as important as engineering and construction," Leopold
said. "It is an absolutely necessary skill. Nothing will get built without
it."
Source: USAtoday.com
