Maine’s gas pains

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    During last year’s State of the State address, Gov. Paul LePage said that one of his top priorities was to fast-track applications to build natural gas pipelines in the state.
    Citing the high cost of fuel oil, LePage felt that it was important to offer businesses an alternative method to heat their buildings. One of the governor’s dreams was to see a natural gas pipeline built inland, so that manufacturers away from the I-95 corridor would have the same benefits as their counterparts in Augusta or Bangor.

    For now, however, Summit Natural Gas and Maine Natural Gas are the only major players in the game as they scramble to offer the alternate fuel to customers from Augusta to Madison.
    Along the way, however, they’re finding out that the new method of heating isn’t going to be much cheaper than the old one.
    Yep, it’s cleaner. But is it more plentiful or easy to convert?
    Natural gas, like oil, is a finite product. We don’t know how much is left in the ground.
    So when you market something the world is going to run out of someday, it’s priced on supply and demand. That’s why we’re paying $3.79 a gallon for fuel oil today compared to $2.49 a few years ago when winter was tamer.
    Propane and natural gas isn’t much different. In fact, even Great Northern Paper’s mill in Millinocket cited the high cost of natural gas as one of the reasons for their 16-week shutdown.
    Even when you switch to natural gas from propane, you don’t just change nozzles. According to the Kennebec Journal, converting the boilers at the Augusta Civic Center was estimated to cost “a few thousand dollars,” but it’s going to be closer to $200,000.
    Before you start digging up a city street, you have to know what’s already beneath the asphalt. If you hit a water main, Main Street could turn into an instant swimming pool or ice skating rink.
    So some utility districts have gotten five times the normal number of requests to review dig sites than they normally do in a year. That takes manpower, and probably overtime.
    Does this mean we should stop natural gas expansion? Not necessarily. But let’s not buy the argument that it’s going to be cheaper.
    Wind turbines are supposed to cut down our electricity bills someday. Unfortunately, none of us will be around in 100 years — barring a major medical breakthrough — to see the long term savings.
    Consumers and businesses in central Maine will soon have a new option for energy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Promoters of the alternate fuel shrug off the cost of construction and inconvenience as “growing pains” for the industry.
    But before we jump on the bandwagon, let’s make sure we get all the facts and weigh the pros and cons.
    Otherwise, we’re not just going to suffer growing pains, but gas pains.
Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.