No Need for Gas from NESE, Will Bring Higher Bills and Air Pollution  

The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline is a (re)proposed natural gas project by Williams (originally put forth by Transco) to expand Transco's existing system from Pennsylvania through New Jersey and into New York. It would transport 400,000 dekatherms (Dth) per day to the Rockaway Transfer Point, where it would terminate. 

However, the record in National Grid’s Long-Term Gas System Plans proceeding demonstrated that National Grid's current gas demand forecast identified no need for this additional gas supply within the 20-year planning horizon.  

Specifically, the New York State Public Service Commission found that under the utilities’ 20-year forecast from 2025, supply exceeds demand by approximately 195,000 Dth per day in 2025–'26, growing to a peak surplus of 559,000 Dth per day in 2029–'30, and remaining in surplus through 2050. Therefore, there is no modeled shortfall that NESE would be needed to solve. 

National Grid’s downstate local gas distribution utilities (KEDNY and KEDLI) have agreed to take 100 percent of that capacity under a 15-year contract, saddling their gas customers in New York City and Long Island with those costs. The utilities’ filings show the project’s costs would be in the billions of dollars, passed through directly onto customers’ bills. 

For these reasons, NRDC has filed a rehearing petition asking the commission to rescind its approval of National Grid’s contracting for NESE’s capacity, clarify that no prudence or cost recovery presumption attaches to this planning docket, and defer any determination on National Grid’s contracting for NESE capacity to an evidentiary hearing as required for all major rate changes (greater than 3.5 percent increase in average residential bills) under state law. 

This is why NESE is a boondoggle and a very bad deal for New York—it is very expensive, long-lived infrastructure for gas we don’t need. And, of course, burning all that new, expensive, unnecessary gas creates greenhouse gas and toxic air pollution emissions, harming New Yorkers’ health and further delaying the state’s climate goals.