Lebanon
The Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee, which reports to the City Council, voted in April to recommend striking references to “natural gas” and “liquefied natural gas” from portions of the Master Plan that promote renewable fuels.
Among the language the committee hopes to remove are calls to “encourage the use of natural gas at local businesses” and “encourage shared natural gas delivery with other municipalities and businesses.”
Members of the committee argue the plan is outdated in its support for the fossil fuel, saying it’s not as environmentally friendly as some thought when the guiding document was approved in 2012.
“… References to the possible use or increased use of natural gas do no not reflect and are not supported policies by the city of Lebanon,” a proposed addendum to the plan said.
The City Council is scheduled to take up the committee’s recommendation on Wednesday, before it can be reviewed by the Planning Board later this month.
Ariel Arwen, a member of the committee, said she thought of amending the Master Plan after coming across “lauding references to natural gas” in its energy chapter.
Although natural gas burns cleaner than traditional fossil fuels such as coal and fuel oil, Arwen said, research has shown that extracting the fuel and transporting it are often just as damaging.
Environmentalists also have raised concerns about the local environmental impact of “fracking,” the method of injecting a water mixture at high pressure to break up underground rock formations and obtain natural gas.
Those concerns run contradictory to the Master Plan, which espouses an overarching goal to reduce “the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions that result from a fossil-fuel dependent economy,” Arwen said.
A group of committee members also worried the plan’s current language could be used by Liberty Utilities to show community support for a proposed natural gas pipeline.
Liberty Utilities is seeking approval from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission of a plan to truck natural gas to a proposed facility near the Lebanon Landfill on Route 12A, where it then would be distributed through a pipeline to Hanover.
Liberty officials have said the pipeline could serve several large Upper Valley businesses between Lebanon and downtown Hanover, but that notion has been challenged recently.
In April, the Dartmouth College Sustainability Task Force released a road map for reducing greenhouse gas emission into 2050. The group said Dartmouth will not be looking to natural gas, but rather biomass, biodiesel and solar energy as possible fuel sources.
Hanover residents also voted during Town Meeting last month to have the town rely solely on renewable energy by 2050.
Arwen, who is also an intervenor in the Liberty proceedings, hopes amending the Master Plan would have a similar effect for Lebanon, showing state regulators that the city doesn’t want a pipeline.
“The one effect that I’m hoping will result at the PUC level is that a witness from Lebanon can make it known that on a policy level, natural gas is not supported by the city’s policies,” she said. “I think it’s important for the three commissioners to be aware of that.”
Arwen would also like the changes to stoke discussion among Lebanon’s business community, possibly dissuading them from seeking to use natural gas.
But City Councilor Clifton Below, the energy committee’s chairman, said he doesn’t believe the Master Plan change would impact ongoing proceedings at the PUC.
“I think at this point, it’s primarily symbolic,” said Below, a former PUC commissioner.
Liberty made a reference to the Master Plan in an earlier proposal before the commission, he said, but that hasn’t been repeated in the company’s current testimony.
Messages left last week and on Monday for Liberty spokesman John Shore were not returned.
The PUC has also thrown out past arguments involving greenhouse gas emissions. It instead evaluates projects based on the “managerial, technical and financial capacity” of those seeking a utility franchise.
Twice last year, the commissioners denied questions from Arwen requesting that Liberty provide information on how the proposed pipeline would adhere to the state Climate Action Plan, which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in New Hampshire 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
“We do not field questions relating to the Climate Action Plan … relevant to our inquiry concerning Liberty’s ability to operate as a natural gas public utility in Lebanon and Hanover, New Hampshire,” the PUC ruled in February 2016.
Below also disagrees with Arwen’s stance that amending the Master Plan will disavow natural gas use. “It would change a policy from appearing to look (on natural gas) favorably to sort of neutral or ‘no comment,’” he said.
The City Council will meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at City Hall to discuss the amendment. It will then will go to the Planning Board some time later this month.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.