Is the Eversource pipeline extension project in Springfield dead?

Yahoo

15-04-2025

SPRINGFIELD — Nearly two years after state Energy Secretary Rebecca L. Tepper told Eversource it needs to provide more information on a proposed gas pipeline project, that supplement has not been filed.
Since then, scant news has emerged about a controversial project to construct a new 5.3-mile, 16-inch diameter gas pipeline from Longmeadow into Springfield.
Though it has been quiet publicly, Eversource says it's still moving forward on the proposal. The company is working on the supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report Tepper asked for and is planning more community outreach later this year, said Tricia Taskey Modifica, an Eversource spokesperson.
The utility company has said the additional pipeline is needed for reliability. The current line is more than 70 years old and issues with it could have 'dire' impacts on customers numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Opponents have raised concerns like health impacts on Springfield — considered an environmental justice community — and not wanting to build fossil fuel infrastructure when the state is trying to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2023, Tepper reviewed Eversource's draft environmental impact statement and said it didn't comply with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, or MEPA.
'The (draft environmental impact report) has not fully justified the purpose and need for the project,' Tepper's 2023 report said, 'and does not explain why the risk of outage was determined to be unacceptably high at this location so as to warrant immediate action.'
She decided Eversource needed to file a supplement that addresses more questions.
There's no specific deadline by which the company needs to file its supplement, according to a spokesperson with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The Eversource project would need additional approvals, including from the Energy Facilities Siting Board. In December 2022, that board held a public hearing, but it's waiting on the MEPA process to move forward, according to Alanna Kelly, a Department of Public Utilities spokesperson.
The Department of Public Utilities has not yet determined whether project is needed for reliability, Kelly said. Once more information is presented, it will resume looking at the project, she said. A presiding officer hasn't been named to the siting board and DPU case, according to the state website.
Eversource said it will do more public outreach this year, which Tepper's 2023 report requires.
'We'll have more on the community outreach and the filing later this year, likely in the latter half of 2025,' Modifica said in a statement. 'Community outreach will take several forms, including direct customer communication, door to door visits, coordination with municipalities and community organizations, stakeholder outreach, and public meetings.'
Rusty Polsgrove, associate director and environmental justice organizer at Arise For Social Justice, has been underwhelmed by Eversource's advertising of outreach sessions in the past — and hopes for stronger community engagement.
Polsgrove said Arise is pursuing possible legislative options to halt the project. 'We came out pretty strong against it,' Polsgrove said of the pipeline proposal. Eversource has to submit supplementary information, but 'that is just buying time to get our lawmakers' attention,' Polsgrove said.
Gary Levine, chair of the Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group, which opposes the project, said he calls the state regularly to ask for updates. 'It's just lying there," he said.
Some think the project is no longer happening and will say to Levine, 'Didn't it go away? Didn't it get settled?' he said. 'No,' he tells them, 'it's still there.'
Springfield's City Council voted against the project in a 2022 resolution. The Longmeadow Select Board has also expressed opposition. The board is not actively working on the issue and is waiting on movement in the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act process, said Select Board Chair Vineeth Hemavathi.
'There's no informal or formal discussions with the town about this at this point,' said Richard Kanoff, an attorney who has represented Longmeadow in the matter.
At this point, everyone but Eversource is waiting, he said. 'We're in a reactive state.'
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