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>But as pipeline projects in New England face legal delays and public opposition They're talking about the northern pass, a proposed 200 mile pipeline from Can

>But as pipeline projects in New England face legal delays and public opposition They're talking about the northern pass, a proposed 200 mile pipeline from Canada, through the White mountain national forest in to New England. I know the region has energy and cost issues, but there has to be a better way than to put protected national land at risk. We also recently had a "catastrophic failure", that caused a dozen explosions in homes, killed one, and caused 40 house fires. It didn't rally a lot of support for natural gas expansion.

mc32 8y ago
True, but what really moves people is price (and better cooking experience, not that electrics aren’t much better than before). People write off those gas explosions to old infra problems.
- salawat 8y ago
  You say that as if old infra problems are little more thsn a minor inconvenience, and not a ticking time bomb...
danjayh 8y ago
> there has to be a better way than to put protected national land at risk. Please explain where the high risk is ... explosions in the middle of nowhere aren't going to hurt much, and if their are leaks, the gas will simply vent into the atmosphere rather than cause the kind of damage that oil spills do. Seems like firing up coal plants in heavily populated regions (the current alternative) is worse. In terms of heat and power generation in cloudy regions, natural gas is vastly superior to everything except nuclear for cleanliness and co2/gigawatt-hour... and if cost is considered, it beats out nuclear too.
- lostlogin 8y ago
  Building and maintaining it is part of the equation too, and that will be destructive. Glad it’s not up to me to decide on.
- colanderman 8y ago
  Natural gas leaks kill trees. It's a big problem around Boston. E.g.: https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20180726/guest-column-gas-leaks-causing-tree-deaths-in-center https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20180726/guest-column... and https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2015/11/27/gas-leaks-a-hidden-culprit-for-dead-trees/ https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2015/11/27/gas-leak...
  - asdfadsfgfdda 8y ago
    This is not a problem for a gas transmission pipeline. Gas leaks are a problem for low-pressure (a few psi) distribution pipes. There is simply too much pipe to find and repair every leak, and low pressure means low leak flow rate. A gas transmission pipeline is hundreds of times higher pressure, they will shut down a pipeline as soon as a leak is detected.
    - danjayh 8y ago
      And based on my brief research on this specific pipeline (which appears to have been scrapped), the gas was to be used for power generation. There was also a proposal for a 320KV transmission line to import power instead, which appears to be going ahead. Personally, I would 1000x rather have a gas pipeline transit my land than a 320kv transmission line. Residential proximity to HV transmission lines increases risk of leukaemia ... at least gas lines can be monitored for leaks & repaired. The people who scuttled this seem to ignore that the dense urban development that they love requires importation of energy in some form from far-flung places.
      - sbierwagen 8y ago
        >Residential proximity to HV transmission lines increases risk of leukaemia "Everything is correlated." The land next to HV lines is cheaper, poorer people have higher mutational load, therefore a higher cancer rate. You get a real, authentic correlation between power lines and cancer, without power lines actually directly causing cancer.
        8y ago
- bluntfang 8y ago
  The high risk is destroying forest land without fully realizing the extent of the impact it will cause.
dwighttk 8y ago
wasn't that like wooden pipelines from the 18th century or something?
exabrial 8y ago
Ironically said Catastrophic Failure was caused by refusal to make regular steady improvements to ancient infrastructure.
Amygaz 8y ago
The northern pass is an electrical project

mc32 8y ago

True, but what really moves people is price (and better cooking experience, not that electrics aren’t much better than before). People write off those gas explosions to old infra problems.

salawat 8y ago
You say that as if old infra problems are little more thsn a minor inconvenience, and not a ticking time bomb...

danjayh 8y ago

> there has to be a better way than to put protected national land at risk. Please explain where the high risk is ... explosions in the middle of nowhere aren't going to hurt much, and if their are leaks, the gas will simply vent into the atmosphere rather than cause the kind of damage that oil spills do. Seems like firing up coal plants in heavily populated regions (the current alternative) is worse. In terms of heat and power generation in cloudy regions, natural gas is vastly superior to everything except nuclear for cleanliness and co2/gigawatt-hour... and if cost is considered, it beats out nuclear too.

lostlogin 8y ago
Building and maintaining it is part of the equation too, and that will be destructive. Glad it’s not up to me to decide on.
colanderman 8y ago
Natural gas leaks kill trees. It's a big problem around Boston. E.g.: https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20180726/guest-column-gas-leaks-causing-tree-deaths-in-center https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/news/20180726/guest-column... and https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2015/11/27/gas-leaks-a-hidden-culprit-for-dead-trees/ https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2015/11/27/gas-leak...
- asdfadsfgfdda 8y ago
  This is not a problem for a gas transmission pipeline. Gas leaks are a problem for low-pressure (a few psi) distribution pipes. There is simply too much pipe to find and repair every leak, and low pressure means low leak flow rate. A gas transmission pipeline is hundreds of times higher pressure, they will shut down a pipeline as soon as a leak is detected.
  - danjayh 8y ago
    And based on my brief research on this specific pipeline (which appears to have been scrapped), the gas was to be used for power generation. There was also a proposal for a 320KV transmission line to import power instead, which appears to be going ahead. Personally, I would 1000x rather have a gas pipeline transit my land than a 320kv transmission line. Residential proximity to HV transmission lines increases risk of leukaemia ... at least gas lines can be monitored for leaks & repaired. The people who scuttled this seem to ignore that the dense urban development that they love requires importation of energy in some form from far-flung places.
    - sbierwagen 8y ago
      >Residential proximity to HV transmission lines increases risk of leukaemia "Everything is correlated." The land next to HV lines is cheaper, poorer people have higher mutational load, therefore a higher cancer rate. You get a real, authentic correlation between power lines and cancer, without power lines actually directly causing cancer.
      - 8y ago
bluntfang 8y ago
The high risk is destroying forest land without fully realizing the extent of the impact it will cause.

dwighttk 8y ago

wasn't that like wooden pipelines from the 18th century or something?

exabrial 8y ago

Ironically said Catastrophic Failure was caused by refusal to make regular steady improvements to ancient infrastructure.

Amygaz 8y ago

The northern pass is an electrical project