Area lawmakers want to get legally involved in the regulatory process that could affect Berkshire Gas Co.’s now 2-year-old moratorium on new hookups.
Legislators from Franklin and Hampshire counties on Tuesday have applied to the state Department of Public Utilities to become formal intervenors in the Berkshire Gas Co.’s proposed four-year forecast and resource plan.
The 241-page filing is projected to prepare an analysis of supply alternatives to provide incremental capacity and lift the moratorium in an area that includes Greenfield, Montague, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately in Franklin County, and Amherst, Hadley and Hatfield in Hampshire County.
The delegation, including Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst; Reps. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington; John Scibek, D-South Hadley; Ellen Story, D-Amherst; Paul Mark, D-Peru and Peter Kocot, D-Northampton, is filing on behalf of their constituents and communities that are subject to a 2014 moratorium on new or expanded service that was contingent on completion of the proposed Kinder-Morgan Northeast Energy Direct interstate gas pipeline project that was stopped earlier this year.
“We need to work with Berkshire Gas and the Department of Public Utilities to find a solution to the moratorium as quickly as possible,” Rosenberg said Tuesday. “By participating in the Berkshire Gas Forecast and Supply plan case, we will be able to better represent the needs of the district in the ongoing effort to find the right solution for lifting the moratorium on new gas customers.”
“It will give us a seat at the table directly,” Rosenberg said. “We’ll be able to participate at a level beyond what we can normally do. You can go to the hearing, you can ask questions, you can write letters. It goes to a higher level. We can ask rhetorical questions and hope they answer them. As intervenors, we can actually ask questions which they’re obligated” to answer. … “This is all on the record, it’s all public.”
Berkshire Gas last month filed its required plan for the years 2016-2017 through 2020-2021, saying it wanted to identify an action plan to address future needs in the wake of the pipeline project’s cancellation.
Rosenberg said legislators have been involved in weekly, and more recently, bi-weekly with Berkshire Gas officials “to have a conversation in hopes of ending the moratorium.”
If granted intervenor status, the legislators will gain access to the detailed information that the company submits to the DPU regulators.
In its previously approved Forecast and Supply Plan, Berkshire Gas stated that it planned to resolve its supply issues by purchasing gas and capacity on the NED Project.
“We know that many residents, businesses, and the region’s economic vitality are at stake, and we are committed to working closely with all interested parties to resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” Kulik said. “I am pleased that the entire legislative delegation for the eight towns negatively affected by the Berkshire Gas moratorium … is working together to give our constituents a stronger voice in DPU’s review.”
In a report commissioned by Berkshire Gas at the urging of Rosenberg, the authors, Woodard and Curran, offered several options the company could take to lift the moratorium. None of the options proposed were acceptable to the company.
Rosenberg has been meeting continually with Berkshire Gas to develop an alternate plan to the NED Project to serve the Eastern Division.
If their intervention is approved, he said, “We’ll see if that does something that’s more robust than would otherwise occur.”
The Town of Montague has said it also plans to file for intervenor status in the review of the proposed five-year supply plan in an attempt to bring about an end of the moratorium.
Kulik filed in the spring of 2015 for intervenor status in the DPU’s review of Berkshire Gas’s long-term supply agreement with the pipeline, but that intervention was rejected.
Rosenberg said he believes that the current proposed intervention, sought just before Tuesday’s deadline, should stand because members of the delegation represent potential customers and communities affected by the moratorium.