USA vs Jamaica in Season 33 of the Newport International Polo Series
The United States took on the Jamaica polo team for an afternoon of tailgating and polo at the Newport Equestrian Center in Portsmouth on Saturday.
A liquefied natural gas plant that opened five years ago in a residential area of Portsmouth as a temporary backup for Aquidneck Island’s gas supply system will remain there for at least the next five years.
State regulators on Thursday approved Rhode Island Energy’s request to extend the life of its Old Mill Lane LNG storage and vaporization facility, a facility that had been the subject of complaints from residents about noise, truck traffic and light pollution and environmental groups about its impact on the climate.
Energy Facility Siting Board members agreed with Rhode Island Energy that there was still a need for the controversial gas extraction station, but did not accept the utility’s argument regarding the vulnerability of the island’s gas system, which is located at one end of the regional grid of utility lines.
As part of their decision, board members are also asking the utility to take steps to reduce natural gas demand on the island, which could even include a moratorium on new connections to the local grid, which they plan to consider at a later date.
More: Are you confused by your Rhode Island electricity bill? Here’s a breakdown of all the costs.
Approving the LNG plant without restricting consumption would have made no sense, said CEO Ronald Gerwatowski.
“It would be like pumping water out of a swimming pool and at the same time running the hose to let water back in,” he said.
Regulators acknowledge capacity constraints but do not address vulnerability issues
Rhode Island Energy had stated that the plant was necessary for two reasons.
Firstly, to solve the shortage of natural gas on the island – in other words, to pump gas into the local distribution system on the coldest winter days when heating needs are highest.
And second, as a kind of insurance policy that can kick in if there are ever problems with the only transmission line that delivers gas from Massachusetts under the Sakonnet River.
Gerwatowski, who heads the three-member siting committee, said the indications that the island was facing gas capacity bottlenecks, at least in the short term, were “undisputed”.
All parties involved in the negotiations agreed, he said, with the exception of the city of Portsmouth, which took no opposing position.
The question of vulnerability is less clear, he said.
While the island has experienced a natural gas outage before – in 2019, when thousands of people lost heat during a frigid winter week, an incident that prompted the siting board to approve the first temporary exemption for the LNG plant – investigators determined that the system failure was the result of an extraordinary chain of circumstances, including a faulty valve on a pipeline in Massachusetts and the failure of a liquefied natural gas plant in Providence to respond to a system-wide drop in pressure.
Since the Site Selection Panel is not legally required to demonstrate more than one need when approving an application, its members decided not to address the issue of system vulnerability.
A possible moratorium on new gas connections is next on the agenda of the site committee
Even on the issue of capacity constraints, board members acknowledged that conditions could – and should – change.
“I think there should actually be an effort to close that gap,” Gerwatowski said. “There is a reliability risk on the island because there is a capacity gap.”
Closing this gap would require new investments in energy efficiency, including improvements in building insulation and switching to heat pumps. Investments in demand management, which provides incentives for large commercial energy customers to reduce their consumption during certain times, would also be required. Rhode Island Energy estimates that these investments could cost more than $100 million.
The siting committee required Rhode Island Energy to develop a special efficiency/demand response program for Aquidneck Island, which must be submitted to the state Public Utilities Commission for approval by June 1, 2025.
Other conditions approved by the panel include requiring the utility to provide regular construction progress reports before the $15 million plant is scheduled to come online in winter 2025-26, and requiring it to conduct a new noise assessment after it is operational. The company must apply for renewal 18 months before its current license expires. Panel members said there was no guarantee that any renewal would be for the same period.
As far as the possible moratorium on new gas connections is concerned, the Board is keeping the current agenda open and will schedule another round of hearings on this issue alone.
The panel’s decision – with its associated conditions – was welcomed by the Conservation Law Foundation, which is campaigning for a ban on new gas connections on the island.
“The sooner we transition to clean energy sources and eliminate the need for LNG facilities like this one, the better equipped we will be to protect our environment and the Rhode Island we know and love for future generations,” attorney James Crowley said in a statement.
Reducing gas demand on Aquidneck Island is consistent with the state’s climate policy
Reducing gas demand on Aquidneck Island is consistent with statewide climate policy.
The requirements of the Act on Climate – a state law passed three years ago that requires Rhode Island to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – cannot be met without converting heating systems to cleaner alternatives.
While some experts argued during the proceedings that the LNG plant violated the law, members of the panel disagreed. Gerwatowski said the plant would only supply the gas already needed on the island and would not create new demand or new emissions.
Nevertheless, in light of the climate law, he and other members advocated keeping the use of the facility to a minimum.
“In the context of the climate law, we hope it will never be repealed,” said Terry Gray, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, who also sits on the panel.
Gerwatowski said it would take some time until the heating systems on the island were fully developed and urged patience.
But Meredith Brady, deputy director of the state’s planning department and a member of the committee, said deadlines under the climate law are fast approaching.
“We are running out of time to achieve the goals of the climate law,” she said.
