Gov. Baker's pipeline funding plan nixed
The future of a planned gas pipeline has been thrown into doubt after the state’s highest court struck down a plan by the Baker administration to fund the project by passing on part of the cost to electric ratepayers.
“This is about fairness, this is about allocation of risk and who should foot the bill for that,” said Attorney General Maura Healey, who opposed Baker’s plan. “If pipeline developers want to build new projects in this state, they’re going to need to find other sources of revenue other than electric ratepayers.”
In the decision released yesterday, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that under Massachusetts law, electric companies could not buy contracts for gas capacity. State law says gas and electric utilities must be completely separate.
That immediately throws a question mark across Access Northeast, one of several pipelines planned or under construction in Massachusetts.
Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2016/08/bakers_pipeline_funding_plan_nixed