An April meeting of six New England governors left the future of a single regional energy strategy in increased doubt.

Previously, a meeting in December 2013 ended with a resolution stating that regardless of obstacles due to differing state perspectives on how to address natural gas transportation concerns for the region, “the governors are committed to achieving consensus as we move forward, consistent with laws and policies across the region.” Wording in the April 23, 2015, statement indicated that the governors now may consider those different perspectives an insurmountable challenge to reaching consensus.

“We recognize that each state may support addressing our regional energy challenge in different ways,” the statement said. “These efforts must be done in partnership with state legislatures, and respecting the requirements of laws, regulatory proceedings, and opportunities for public participation that are unique to each individual state.”

During the summit, the governors developed a list of actions the six states expected to take to increase development of gas infrastructure in the region. New England consumers have recently faced high energy prices during times of increased use due to several factors, experts said during a panel discussion at a meeting the governors held to discuss the strategy.

Part of the constraint comes from drastically increased use of natural gas for electricity generation in the region without adequate infrastructure for gas transportation in place, Gordon Van Welie, president and CEO of ISO New England Inc., said at the meeting.

“Over the past 15 years, the region has seen a major shift toward natural gas-fired generation [away from coal],” Van Welie said. “[During 2014] we produced nearly half of our electricity with natural gas, up from 15% in 2000. The combined use of coal and oil has fallen dramatically over the same period, from 40% to 6%.”

Natural gas has become an attractive option for electricity generators due to its low price, as well as its lower carbon emissions compared to coal, he said.

“These factors are driving major generation retirements in the region,” Van Welie said. “Over the past few years, 10% of our generating capacity announced plans to retire within five years, and this includes coal, oil and nuclear power plants.”

The retirement of other electricity generators will only exacerbate the supply problem unless significant transportation capacity is added to the region. Richard Levitan, president and principal at Levitan & Associates, talked about transportation problems the region faces.

“The decline in production of natural gas from Atlanta, Canada, the high cost of getting gas from western Canada into New England and the Northeast has exacerbated the tensions on the primary pipelines that serve the region, so whereas before we had a fair amount of portfolio diversification from gas moving north to south from Atlanta, Canada, and west to east from western Canada, and a lot of LNG from two major import terminals, that has changed,” he said.

“The decay in production from Atlanta and western Canada has intensified the region’s dependence on west to east and south to north flows from Pennsylvania along Tennessee and Algonquin into New England,” Levitan said.

He did offer a bright spot on the horizon.

“The good news is, help is on the way,” he said. “We’re going to see new projects beefing up infrastructure capability in the next few years. Is it enough? And if it is not, how can the region meet its electric reliability goals through new infrastructure expansions, along existing rights of way or new rights of way?”

During a news conference after the summit, Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut expressed his doubts that current projects planned by private companies would sufficiently address the region’s gas-supply concerns.

“The marketplace itself has not resolved this issue—and by the way, if I just made an extra $7.5 billion over the past two years and I was the market, I'm not sure I would want to resolve this issue,” he said, according to the Hartford Courant.

The action plan released by the governors indicated that several states plan to make specific efforts to promote private infrastructure construction in the region, including passing legislation to participate in regional competitive procurement processes and allowing the solicitation of long-term resource contracts. However, the difference between the strategies put forth by each state within the action plan indicates that most plans will be pursued on a state-by-state, rather than regional, basis.

Contact the author, Caryn Livingston, at clivingston@hartenergy.com.