Access Northeast is all about Export

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What the proposed Access Northeast project and other nearby projects will do is bring 35% more gas reserves to our region- or rather “through” our region. In Feb/ 2016 the US Department of Energy approved pipeline exports of domestic natural gas to Canada for export through LNG (liquified natural gas) shipping ports. It is clear that big energy companies want to build expensive and risky gas infrastructure in Massachusetts to get their fracked gas from the shale fields in PA through the Northeast and into Canada for export -and to have us pay for it!

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Liquefaction storage facilities are the last step to loading LNG onto giant tankers for export to the more lucrative world market. Up until this year there was just one such plant on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. With our nationwide fracking boom, the US has now become the number one producer of fracked gas in the world, while both the price of gas and our future domestic needs have fallen and are projected to fall further. Fracked gas overproduction has gas industry admitting that they have “slit their own throats” and the glut of gas is driving a desperate new push to export overseas. To this end, FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) has recently approved four new liquefaction plants in the Southeast US this year with the clear intent to export LNG. Thus, the end goal for Access Northeast  to get fracked gas reserves through NE for export out of Canada for export is in complete alignment with the current national trajectory. 

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Key facts regarding the proposed compression station

Normal operational functions of the compressor stations include:

The station will be powered by a noisy gas powered 10,320 turbine engine- the dirtiest of its kind and which produce sound 24/7. In addition to the constant noise is the constant vibration from compressor stations which is very disruptive to human and animal health and wellbeing causing lack of sleep and heightened anxiety levels. Called “low frequency noise” (LFN), this can be felt up to 5 miles away and is currently unregulated by the EPA. 

 

Compressor stations sites also include Condensate tanks, Storage tanks, Glycol Dehydration Units, Amine Units, Scrubbers, Filter Separators, whose function is to remove liquids, dirt, and other “impurities” from the natural gas as it moves along the pipeline to its final destination. These “impurities” (including toxic fracking chemicals) are removed from the gas and are then stored on site, then “disposed of” or sold. The details of which are also extremely concerning to the public. All of these compressor station units release emissions into the air with respiratory health impacts of particular concern to such vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, and the elderly.

 

As compressor stations operate 24 hours / 7 days a week, they require stadium style lights that will illuminate the minimum 15 acres needed for the compressor station complex.

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