What we know about gas pipeline expansion plans in CSRA
WRENS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A company is rolling out new plans to expand a natural gas pipeline through the CSRA, a decade after an earlier proposal caused controversy.
Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, says the $3 billion new proposal is an effort to meet growing demand for natural gas.
The plan – known as the South System Expansion 4 Project – consists of 14 new natural gas pipeline loops totaling approximately 279 miles primarily along the existing South Main Line of Southern Natural Gas in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
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Its plan would involve Washington, Glascock, Jefferson and Richmond counties.
We’ve heard from both Kinder Morgan and those against this expansion.
Savannah River Keeper Tonya Bonitatibus has fought the pipeline before.
“A couple of years ago, Kinder Morgan in this area made a big splash because they wanted to build a petroleum pipeline all the way to Jacksonville,” said Bonitatibus.
Now it’s a different gas, under the same company.
Bonitatibus says her stance hasn’t changed
“I’m not sure how there’s going to be a river left in Savannah,” she said.
But Kinder Morgan leaders say the need for natural gas is growing.
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“There is a need for natural gas supply for all of those reasons to handle the population and economic growth and additional role that natural gas plays in power generation, power generation means electricity,” said Allen Fore, vice president of Kinder Morgan.
Fore and his team at Kinder Morgan believe that’s why a new pipeline is needed.
“The goal is to provide additional natural gas supply for the southeast,” said Fore. “For residential and home use for business, for industrial, for power generation.”
Fore says with the project putting the new pipeline next to existing ones, it will keep disruption down and minimize both environmental and landowner impacts, but Bonitatibus says otherwise.
“This is an expansion of an existing natural gas pipeline system that we have operated in Georgia for over 50 years,” Fore said. “It’s designed to increase natural gas supply for the region.”
Kinder Morgan is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in the U.S. The company says they proposed project is needed.
“Even if you don’t have direct natural gas service, that’s natural gas heating or natural gas for your gas stove, you do have lights and electricity, and that comes from natural gas,” says Fore. “These days, everyone will directly benefit.”
Some landowners in Jefferson County say they have plans for their property, and a project like this could mess it up.
“She said, ‘Well, we may want to put a barn over here where we think that is, you know, where this map looked like you’re going to propose to put your pipeline,’” says Fore. “Well, we know that now. That’s something we can work into.”
They say the meetings focus on gathering information.
“There were unique situations that were brought up by landowners that I haven’t heard before, which is good,” says Fore.
The company is hosting in-person open houses to offer more information about the plan.
Fore says learning is the purpose of the open houses.
“You can look at all the maps from the computer you can fly over the property, look at it from the air, can drive by it and peek in, but until you talk to the person that owns it, lives it, works it every day, you really don’t understand what’s out there,” says Fore.
“I think that we need to start really asking some hard questions about how we’re using this resource,” said Bonitatibus
The one thing both sides agree on is that you need to make an effort to learn about the project, how it could affect you as a landowner and make your voice heard
A MAP OF THE PLAN:
About a decade ago, Kinder Morgan was rebuffed in its plans to build the Palmetto Pipeline through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
The effort led to laws being ed in Georgia and South Carolina to prevent the company from using eminent domain to use a person’s property for the pipeline without their consent.
Sentiment may be different now.
As your Senior Investigative Reporter Liz Owens explains, that legislation does not protect landowners from this project.
That’s because natural gas is regulated differently than gas and diesel, so the previous legislation doesn’t protect landowners for this project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversees interstate natural gas pipelines, meaning if the commission decides the pipeline is in the public interest and issues a certificate order. Then, Kinder Morgan has eminent domain powers over state immunity.
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Here’s the timeline:
2025
Kinder Morgan expects to finalize the project this year, at which time agents will meet with landowners to discuss any temporary or permanent easement rights as well as possible payment.
October 2026
The company plans to request a certificate of order from the federal government in October of 2026.
March 2027
Once Kinder Morgan gets the order, it will begin construction in March of 2027.
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The expansion of the pipeline will allow Kinder Morgan to increase exports of natural gas out of its Elba Island export terminal in Savannah.
The million-dollar question for this three-billion-dollar project is, is it for public convenience and necessity or to grow corporate profits?
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