New York and New Jersey Need Natural Gas

Politicians can no longer afford to give in to those who oppose every new pipeline proposal

By Mark Longo. He is director of Engineers-Labor Employer Cooperative Local 825 in New Jersey. Exceerpts:

"Natural gas prices soared in New York over the winter, with many parts of the state seeing rates close to $20 per million British thermal units in January and February. In Pennsylvania, by contrast, prices averaged just over $3 per million Btus. That price difference is a function of New York’s misguided environmental policies.

Neighboring New Jersey’s policies are no better. Environmentalists in the Garden and Empire states have been steadfast in opposing any new pipelines even as prices for consumers and businesses have steadily risen."

"a longstanding ban on fracking has put the vast reserves of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations in the western part of the state off limits. As a result, New York must import its natural gas from other parts of the country and from Canada."

"In 2016 . . . activists . . . blocked the construction of the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline" 

"The following year, a federal court upheld New York’s authority to block the proposed Constitution project to supply the Albany area"

"In 2019, New York and New Jersey both rejected the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project"

"Since 2017, the Garden State has taken nearly 5 gigawatts of power off the grid"

"In November 2021 . . . the state’s public utilities regulator . . . released a consultant’s report claiming that in several of the modeled scenarios, natural-gas demand would drop steadily thanks to Trenton’s electrification mandates. The report envisioned the installation of millions of electric heat pumps to replace natural-gas space and water heaters in residential and commercial buildings."

"Natural gas demand has soared"

"Wind and solar capacity must be backed up by huge quantities of battery storage, which New Jersey has little of and is behind the schedule outlined in its 2019 Energy Master Plan."

"Only about 5% of New Jersey’s single-family homes have heat pumps."

"average residential retail electric utility bills are expected to increase by about 20%"