She says that it’s not clear how much if any of this landfill gas will make its way over the border to Vermont customers.
The biogas will be transported on pipelines VGS currently uses to transport natural gas.Ī rendering of the likely path the biogas from Seneca Meadows landfill will take to Vermont.Ĭatherine Bock of Burlington is a Vermont Gas customer and retired naturopathic doctor who is challenging the contract before the PUC. From there, it will be piped north and east around Lake Ontario, and eventually to Vermont. In it's decision to approve the contract, the Public Utility Commission said the biogas will be transported from from Seneca Meadows, up and around Lake Erie, to the Enbridge Gas Dawn Hub located in Ontario. In Vermont, about 130 people filed comments with the Public Utility Commission to oppose the deal, including from at least six lawmakers. The landfill’s owners have applied for an expansion that’s faced pushback from environmental groups and some local business owners there. The gas will be generated at the Seneca Meadows Landfill in Waterloo, NY. Representatives of Vermont Gas told the PUC they were in conversations about the contract as far back as last spring, when a bill to create a Clean Heat Standard for Vermont was before the Legislature.ĭocuments filed with the PUC say the deal could be worth anywhere from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. The utility's latest tariff agreement cites insufficient supply of locally sourced biogas in Vermont.
It's the third contract for out-of-state biogas that the PUC has approved for Vermont Gas. There is an option to extend the contract for another five years. The contract commits Vermont Gas to purchasing out-of-state biogas from Archaea Energy, a subsidiary of the fossil fuel giant British Petroleum, for 14.5 years. More from Vermont Public: How Vermont is – and isn’t – on track to reduce its share of climate-warming emissions
"Our decision is based on our determination that if the contract is managed effectively, it can be a cost-effective means for VGS to reduce its overall emissions," the PUC said in its decision. The utility says the contract will help it meet its climate goals.
Vermont Gas President and CEO Neale Lunderville says the utility will start making requests for the gas to be delivered early in the new year.Įnergy regulators approved the deal Tuesday, despite criticism that it won’t meaningfully reduce Vermont’s - or the gas utility's - emissions. It can be substituted for conventional natural gas, but proponents argue that because the gas is siphoned from carbon-filled waste, it is cleaner than conventional natural gas. It is derived from the breakdown of waste, including at landfills, from animal manure and food scraps. The gas, which the utility calls renewable natural gas, is also called biomethane or biogas. The PUC says it's the largest contract for so-called renewable natural gas the company has ever pursued. Vermont's Public Utility Commission has approved a request by Vermont Gas Systems to enter into a long-term contract to buy biogas and its associated renewable energy credits from a landfill in New York’s Finger Lakes region. This story is breaking and may be updated.
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