GREENFIELD — Though Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline has been shelved, community groups that have been working against it say they aren’t letting up just yet.
Kinder Morgan announced Wednesday that it would suspend “all work and expenditure” on the $5 billion pipeline “in its current configuration,” citing an inability to attract enough customers. The natural gas pipeline would have gone through eight Franklin County towns.
Many area residents and groups that formed to fight the project are worried it could be revived if market conditions change, and most are planning to continue gathering information and building their cases against new natural gas infrastructure in the Northeast.
In Deerfield, which emerged early as a hotbed of anti-pipeline action in the fall of 2014, the Board of Health’s ban on all pipeline activity stands, said the town’s lawyer, Cristobal Bonifaz of Conway, but another lawsuit brought by a group of county residents will not move forward.
Bonifaz said the court case he had pending with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on behalf of residents from Plainfield, Northfield and Deerfield that argued granting eminent domain powers to a private company is unconstitutional if the gas transported along the resulting pipeline was destined for export is now moot, since the pipeline in question is essentially nonexistent.
“If the pipeline is not happening, nothing else can go forward, none of my clients have a case,” he said. “My constitutional argument will have to wait for another day, with another client.”
In Montague, where neighboring towns have coalesced and pooled their money to support the town’s intervention in state Department of Public Utilities proceedings to challenge Berkshire Gas’ push to purchase gas from the NED, town pipeline liaison Ariel Elan said the town will continue to participate in that case until Berkshire signals it will not continue in light of the cancellation.
The original goal in Montague’s intervention was to deny Kinder Morgan the customer base it would need to justify building the pipeline, and that’s what the company cited Wednesday as the primary factor in its decision to suspend work. Other towns, including Gill, Northfield and Conway have or have been considering sending money to support Montague.
Meg Burch of Conway’s Pipeline Task Force said if the pipeline is dead, the task force will likely be disbanded as well, since its mission was focused specifically on that project. But, she said, “As people digest what Kinder Morgan’s press release means, it’ll become clearer over the next week or so.”
Conway Planning Board Chairman Joseph Strzegowski said the town has already passed a large-scale industrial bylaw to mitigate impacts on town roads and wells by big project like the pipeline, and is awaiting the state attorney general’s approval. Other towns are considering such bylaws.
Despite the project’s suspension, he said, that bylaw could serve as protection against other, similar projects in the future, should they come to town.
He and Burch both said the town’s article to support Montague’s legal fight could still move forward at town meeting May 9.