Atlantic Bridge Gas Project

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Atlantic Bridge Gas Pipeline is an operating natural gas pipeline. It's an expansion project associated with the Algonquin Gas Transmission Pipeline System and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Systems.

Location

The pipeline runs from New Jersey to Maine, USA, ending in New Brunswick, Canada. The project primarily uses existing pipeline that is part of the Algonquin Gas Transmission Pipeline, with additional compressor station upgrades and minor length additions. The project is designed to provide additional capacity on the Algonquin Gas Transmission Pipeline System and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Systems to move natural gas to New England, U.S. and to end-use markets in Canadian Maritime provinces.

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Project details

• Operator: Algonquin Gas Transmission (US), Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (Canada)
• Owner: Enbridge
• Parent Company:
• Capacity: 132,700 Dekatherms per day / 132.7 million cubic feet per day
  • Phase I: 40 million cubic feet per day
  • Phase II: 93 million cubic feet per day
• Length: 6.3 miles
• Diameter: 42 inches
• Status: Operating
• Start year:
  • Phase I: 2017
  • Phase II: 2021
• Cost: $452 million
• Financing:
• Associated Infrastructure: Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline

Background

The Atlantic Bridge Gas Pipeline expands Enbridge's Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline systems by 133 million cubic feet feet per day. The US$452 million project replaced existing pipelines and added new or expanded existing compressor stations in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Six miles of existing pipeline in New York and Connecticut were increased from 26 inches to 42 inches. A 7700-horsepower compressor station was built in Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA, along with numerous infrastructure improvements.

Spectra (merged into Enbridge in 2017) completed the open season for the project in 2014. In January 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project after the commission accepted that there would be no significant environmental impact and the project's in-service date was slated for November 2017.

In May of 2017, FERC permitted Enbridge to continue the pipeline project in Connecticut. In October 2017, FERC granted permission to Enbridge to proceed with the Atlantic Bridge expansion project in the state of New York.

The first phase of the pipeline runs through New Jersey and New York. It began operating in November 2017, delivering 40 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of July 2023 phase II construction was completed in January 2021.

Opposition

After the January 2017 approval, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey requested that FERC rescind its approval of the project. After the resignation of the commission's former Chairman Bay, the two senators argued that the commission lacked enough members needed to convene a quorum. Without a quorum, any challenges to the project would go unheard until the vacancy was filled.

Before the approval of the project by FERC, both senators sent several letters to FERC scrutinizing the approval of the pipeline project. The Massachusetts Senators suggested that there were substantial conflicts of interests with the environmental review process. Senator Warren has also questioned the need for the project, arguing that the compressor to be built in Weymouth, Massachusetts does little to serve the interests of the state. Rather, the project's main priority "has more to do with pumping gas north for export to distant markets than with helping Massachusetts residents."

In February 2020, FERC voted to deny two requests to rehear the December 2018 decision granting Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC’s two-year extension to complete construction of the Atlantic Bridge project.

On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the construction of a new compressor station proposed as a part of the Atlantic Bridge natural gas pipeline project and remanded the matter to the agency for further analysis. The Town of Weymouth had sued the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection over the air permit they'd issued to developers.

Conflict of Interest

One of the main points of contention against the project has been FERC's approval of the project despite significant conflicts of interest in both the environmental review process and the overall project itself. In 2016, Senators Warren and Markey sent a letter to FERC stating their concern over Natural Resource Group's assistance with vetting Spectra Energy's Atlantic Bridge project while working for Spectra on another project, the PennEast Gas Pipeline project, generating a conflict of interest. Markey and Warren further added that Natural Resource Group's ties to the gas industry made it "difficult to believe that it could objectively evaluate the environmental impact of the Atlantic Bridge project.” When FERC was presented with this knowledge, they ignored it while approving the project.

Another conflict of interest between FERC and Spectra Energy arose during the environmental review process for the Atlantic Bridge pipeline project. According to DeSmog, Phil Suter, the spouse of Maggie Suter, an official at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) who led the review for two gas pipeline projects by Spectra Energy including the Atlantic Bridge project, is a paid consultant on another Spectra project. The project Phil Suter was consulting for was Spectra's Access Northeast Gas Pipeline project, which is part of the Algonquin Transmission pipeline system expansion. The Atlantic Bridge project is also part of that expansion project. While FERC did remove her from the role of project manager on the Cove Point LNG Terminal project, it did not require her to remove herself from the review of the Atlantic Bridge prospect. However, since FERC and Spectra both considered that the three expansion projects were entirely separate, they were able to technically avoid a conflict of interest. On the other hand, opponents of the pipeline system expansion have repeatedly argued that the three separate expansion projects (Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Gas Pipeline, Atlantic Bridge Gas Pipeline, and Access Northeast Gas Pipeline) are actually interconnected, thus making Phil Suter's and Maggie Suter's relationship a relevant conflict of interest.

The most recent conflict of interest is the relationship between Enbridge, which bought out Spectra, and ERM (Environmental Resources Management), the company whose subsidiary NRG also conducted Atlantic Bridge's environmental review. ERM is also the contractor for a number of Enbridge's other projects, which poses a conflict of interest in regards to the company's role as the monitor for the project. Despite allegations of another conflict of interest, FERC has allowed ERM to remain as the monitor for the Atlantic Bridge project as of October 2017.

Weymouth Resistance

One of the fiercest points of resistance to the gas pipeline project has been in the city of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Spectra Energy offered to pay the city $47 million to build a compressor station in the city, but residents have been steadfastly united in their opposition, citing environmental and health concerns. In 2016, hundreds of residents wrote to FERC demanding the commission to not approve the construction of the compressor station. Weymouth's conservation commission also denied a wetlands permit to the state's Department of Environmental Protection, while also appealing to the Office of Coastal Zone Management which oversees the state's industrial ports. The had already approved of the project which Weymouth has challenged.

As of October 2017, plans to fully open the project have stalled due to Weymouth's opposition to the construction of the compressor station. The compressor dispute is currently sifting through the federal courts and may not be settled for another year. The compressor has a regional impact because it will maintain the pressure necessary to send gas upwards to Maine. If the compressor is not built by 2019, alternatives routes may be used; Appalachian gas could be routed through Ontario and Quebec and into western Maine on the Portland National Gas Transmission System pipeline, which connects with the Maritimes line in Westbrook.

In January 2019, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker approved permits for the construction of the compressor station at Weymouth.

On June 3, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the construction of a new compressor station proposed as a part of the Atlantic Bridge natural gas pipeline project and remanded the matter to the agency for further analysis. The Town of Weymouth had sued the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection over the air permit they'd issued to developers.