The president of Vermont Gas Systems is telling skeptical state regulators that the current cost forecast for a pipeline expansion in western Vermont is accurate now, even though its price tag already has gone from $86 million to nearly $154 million.
Vermont Gas President and CEO Don Rendall told the Public Service Board that the company's plan to extend its system from Chittenden County to Middlebury is far enough along now to forecast costs.
But he says the company has yet to select a contractor to lay the main pipeline on the extended system.
The board approved Phase 1 of the project — the line to Middlebury — in December of 2013. The new hearings concern whether it should reopen that approval in light of the rising costs.
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