Securing state water and air permits has proven to be a challenge for Enbridge Inc. as it builds out natural gas pipeline capacity to the Northeast U.S., a company executive told Hart Energy.

Erin Petkovich, Enbridge’s director of Northeast business development, sat down with Hart Energy’s Jessica Morales at the Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference in Pittsburgh to discuss how opposition to pipelines in the region adds uncertainty to the construction process, not just to Enbridge but to the company’s customers.

Another challenge facing the company is a public that is not well-educated to the value that fossil fuels bring to their lives.

“Natural gas can provide clean, reliable, affordable, abundant and domestic energy and it can support renewable infrastructure so that it can be a backup to electricity generation,” she said.