It’s just a nine-hour drive from the natural-gas-rich Marcellus Shale of western Pennsylvania to downtown Manchester, N.H. Yet, during the coldest months of winter, many New Englanders keep warm using natural gas shipped in from Trinidad and Tobago, just off the coast of Venezuela 2,300 miles away.
Why? Geography.
LNG tankers don’t have to cross the borders of Massachusetts or New York.
Yes, thanks to existing infrastructure, natural gas from Pennsylvania makes it to New England. As demand for electricity rises — and with it, demand for natural gas to generate power — pipeline capacity has been limited. Also, northern New England is home to the highest number of households using old-fashioned home heating oil in the winters. These homes could be using lower-carbon natural gas. If they could get it.
However, Pennsylvania natural gas suppliers have two logistics problems getting their product to New England: New York and Massachusetts.
These deep-blue states work hard to block natural gas pipelines, not just to their own citizens but to residents of neighboring states. In fact, Gov. Maura Healey often brags about steps she’s taken to halt the movement of natural gas.
“Remember, I stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state,” Healey said in October 2022 when she was the state’s attorney general. In December 2023, after being elected governor, her administration ordered the state to transition away from natural gas as part of its climate goals.
In 2016, the Constitution Pipeline, which could have brought natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to the Northeast, ran into the roadblock that is New York state regulators. The project received federal approval but was denied a state water quality permit.
In proposing a similar pipeline, President Trump said it could lower energy costs by 70%. That’s music to the ears of New England consumers, who pay some of the highest energy costs in the country.
Perhaps that’s why Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, now says he’s open to working with the administration.
“The president and I will never agree about wind power and solar power, nor will we agree about coal and even oil, but perhaps in the area of natural gas and nuclear there are some ways that we can work together to potentially bring down dramatically the prices of electricity in our state and region,” Lamont said.
It’s a good sign for New England consumers, said Patrick Henderson, the vice president of Government Affairs & Communications for the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
“Perhaps there is a bit of reckoning with the Democratic Party and its leadership that needs to occur,” Henderson said. “Perhaps they learned last fall that their strident ‘just say no’ approach on energy just can’t work. It’s not sustainable; it’s not feasible for success.”
Polling conducted in March by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Foundation found that 47% of the state’s voters support building more natural gas pipelines. However, voicing support for a pipeline and ushering it through an approval process are different things.
Before construction starts, the project must be approved by the Departments of Transportation and Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must find that the proposed pipeline meets “the public convenience and necessity.” The project must also be in compliance with the Natural Gas Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, and the Coastal Zone Management Act.
The administration can ease a pipeline’s approval through this sea of red tape. However, pipelines must still be approved by each state through which they travel. And blue states like Massachusetts and New York have made it clear their answer is no.
“The industry is exhausted by all the ping-ponging back and forth,” Henderson said. “For all of the policy issues and political discussions we have, someone who is sitting in a boardroom deciding where to deploy billions of dollars of capital, they’re going to want some certainty before they make those decisions.”
Dan Weaver, the president of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, said that a hot summer in New York City could well lead to that certainty.
“If we get a wicked, hot summer and people all try to turn the ACs on and New York City starts flickering a little bit because they’re not getting natural gas from Canada,” he said, trailing off suggestively. “Coal plants are being retired. There are no new natural gas plants to fill the void. Data centers are coming online. The disparity between the available amount of energy and the need for energy is just getting bigger.”
Jessica Towhey writes on education and energy policy