skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

An Alabama man who spent more than 40 years behind bars speaks out, Florida natural habitats are disappearing, and spring allergies hit hard in Connecticut.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

After another campus shooting, President Trump says people, not guns, are the issue. Alaska Sen. Murkowski says Republicans fear Trump's retaliation, and voting rights groups sound the alarm over an executive order on elections.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Money meant for schools in timber country is uncertain as Congress fails to reauthorize a rural program, farmers and others will see federal dollars for energy projects unlocked, and DOGE cuts threaten plant species needed for U.S. food security.

Need for Atlantic Coast Pipeline Falls

play audio
Play

Monday, February 11, 2019   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The demand the huge Atlantic Coast Pipeline was intended to meet is disappearing, according to documents from the corporations behind the project.

Dominion and Duke Energy own almost all of the pipeline, as well as the electric utilities it would supply with natural gas. When applying for a federal permit, they argued it was needed to meet rising electricity demand in North Carolina and coastal Virginia.

But Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said utility filings in those states now show the outlook has changed dramatically - in part because of competition from cheap, renewable energy.

"Dominion is not projecting any increase in natural-gas demand until 2032,” Kunkel said. “Duke is still planning to build some natural-gas plants, but most of that has shifted to the late 2020s."

The energy companies say they need more pipeline capacity to move fracked gas out of the Marcellus and Utica fields of northern West Virginia, where the price for it is artificially depressed by a transportation bottleneck.

The 600-mile pipeline across the three states has faced a number of setbacks, including lawsuits by landowners and conservationists. It was recently announced that the total cost of the project would rise to $7.5 billion, and its opening would be delayed until 2021.

If the builders can get state utility regulators' approval, they can shift the full expense of the line onto ratepayers, along with a guaranteed profit. But Kunkel said investors in the utilities may be starting to worry about the financial risks.

"The project has been delayed by these court challenges, it's also over-budget,” she said. “And if the state regulators say, 'You clearly don't need all of the gas capacity that you signed up for here; we're not going to let you charge it to your ratepayers,' then that would be a very significant blow."

Kunkel said the incentives tend to make utilities and pipeline companies overestimate demand and overbuild capacity. She said that's becoming a more serious issue as climate change poses increasing risks.

Kunkel helped write the analysis for a report from IEEFA and Oil Change International.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
Congressional researchers said more than 25 million American households report forgoing food and medicine to pay their energy bills. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is joining advocates for energy assistance across the country to warn a dangerous situation is brewing for…


Environment

play sound

Teams of researchers and volunteers will fan out at dawn Friday with their smartphones and binoculars on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus for …

Environment

play sound

Environmental groups across Michigan are pushing back after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed it will fast-track Enbridge's Line 5 tunnel …


The elimination of judgeships in 11 Indiana counties followed a weighted caseload study, which found some counties have more judges than needed to manage their current dockets. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Indiana lawmakers approved a bill Tuesday to eliminate judgeships in eleven mostly rural counties as part of a statewide judicial reallocation…

play sound

For Minnesota households planning future college enrollment, there is a good chance tuition will cost more, as public campuses facing tighter budgets …

When cows eat plant cover faster than it can regrow, it erodes and degrades the soil beneath, making it more susceptible to runoff and other undesirable consequences. (Saed/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

By Seth Millstein for Sentient Climate.Broadcast version by Isobel Charle for Washington News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service C…

Environment

play sound

Communities in southern and eastern Montana were connected to passenger rail lines running from Chicago to Seattle until 1979. An effort to fund the …

Environment

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient Climate.Broadcast version by Danielle Smith for Keystone State News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public Ne…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021