New Englanders have a problem. They are using more and more natural gas for electricity generation and for home heating. In fact, they are the only region of the country where natural gas is increasing as a heating fuel. They can get inexpensive U.S. natural gas by building pipelines or they can buy imported expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Caribbean to fuel their generators and homes. Unfortunately, anti-pipeline activists are winning the fight. Kinder Morgan Inc. had to scrap its proposed $3.3 billion Northeast Energy Direct project in April due to a lack of customers. The Constitution Pipeline that would bring Marcellus gas from Pennsylvania is being held up because New York denied it a water permit, citing concern about contamination of the city's supply. As a result, three or four times a month, giant ships are escorted through Boston Harbor, delivering LNG from Trinidad to a terminal on the Mystic River. That terminal supplied 11 percent of New England's gas in January—the most since 2012.1
