As federal regulators review the proposed 400-mile Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, Massachusetts’ governor says the decision rests on whether FERC thinks New England has the capacity to meet the region’s energy needs.Governor Charlie Baker says New England is losing about 10,000 megawatts of baseload energy over the next five years.
“If people want to engage this process in a constructive way that will get the attention of the federal government then we as a region have to be able to answer the question of ‘What’s the alternative?’” said Baker.
Speaking in Great Barrington Tuesday, Baker says those alternatives include expanding pipelines along existing routes, hydropower from Canada, solar, wind and efficiency measures. He says action on those can impact FERC’s decision. Review of the $5 billion project is expected to take about a year.
