WASHINGTON (SELC) – A new report by London Economics International LLC (LEI) casts serious doubt on the alleged need for two massive methane gas pipeline projects in the Southeast—Southern Natural Gas’s South System Expansion 4 (SSE4) and Kinder Morgan’s Mississippi Crossing (MSX). The proposed projects would bring nearly 500 miles of new pipe and many expanded or new polluting compressor stations across Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. The project’s developers estimate that construction will cost a breathtaking $ 5.2 billion, and that does not include decades of operational costs.
The LEI report, commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), found that most of the gas capacity that these projects would bring to the South is unnecessary. Major utilities, including Southern Company affiliates Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Southern Power, and Atlanta Gas Light, do not need any of the gas they’ve contracted to use from the pipelines. The analysis concludes that the public record does not support the scale of the demand being claimed to justify the ‘need’ for the projects.
“This report casts serious doubt on whether these projects are needed at all, much less at the incredible scale being proposed,” said Megan Gibson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “When you look closely at the utilities’ own plans and the public record, the evidence simply does not support forcing communities and businesses throughout the South to pay for unnecessary pipeline capacity with their pocketbooks and their health. FERC should not approve such costly new gas infrastructure where the claimed need is between and among corporate affiliates, highly speculative, and could be met through other available options.”
The report finds that the data shows significant uncertainty around large load growth (including data centers) that is being used to justify much of the alleged demand for this gas capacity. LEI also found that existing or alternative capacity options had not been fully acknowledged or considered. LEI conservatively reviewed the utilities’ own planning documents, public load (or demand) forecasts, and some potential other alternative sources of capacity for this analysis.
If these projects move forward, the harms would not stop at higher bills. Mississippi Crossing and South System Expansion 4 would expose communities to possible gas leaks, and even potential explosions. In some communities, the pipelines will increase air pollution and expose communities to a greater risk of asthma, cancer, and heart attacks. The projects would also impact 18 river watersheds and threaten sensitive wildlife habitat, compounding the high cost of unnecessary gas infrastructure for both people and the places they call home.
Click here for a map of proposed pipeline projects across the South.
On behalf of Alabama Rivers Alliance, Blackbelt Women Rising, Energy Alabama, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, Mississippi Rising Coalition, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and a local landowner, SELC intervened at the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) to oppose these projects, including a recent submission highlighting the gross deficiencies of FERC’s draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed projects
These two projects are part of a bigger proposed methane gas buildout happening in the South. Across SELC’s six-state region, utilities are planning nearly 45,000 megawatts of new gas-fired capacity by 2040—enough to power more than 25 million homes. Utilities are doubling down on dirty fossil fuels for an unprecedented amount of energy they say is needed to serve energy hungry data centers swarming to the South. This generational investment in climate warming fossil fuels, including methane gas, leaves utility customers across the South open to enormous, painful spikes in utility bills.
Quotes from local and regional groups opposing the Mississippi Crossing and South System Expansion 4 pipeline proposals:
“There are five intertwined facts: these pipelines are extraordinarily expensive; the load growth being used to justify them is increasingly uncertain; pipeline contracts are negotiated in secret; these pipeline companies and the utilities are related to each other; and the most important piece – these pipeline costs pass straight through from the secret contracts onto utility ratepayer bills with no risk to shareholders and very little oversight,” said Shelley Robbins, senior decarbonization manager at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “Kinder Morgan’s Mississippi Crossing and Southern Natural Gas’ South System Expansion 4 are a shady gravy train for the utilities and the pipeline companies.”
“The construction of these pipelines poses serious risks to our waterways and communities. The report reinforces how unnecessary and reckless these projects are,” said Cindy Lowry, executive director of Alabama Rivers Alliance. “In a state like Alabama, where more than 80% of water is used for electricity generation from coal, gas and nuclear, any increase in the use of fossil fuels is a step backwards.”
“Here in Alabama’s Blackbelt, we’ve seen the serious risks gas pipelines can cause our community firsthand. This report confirms these proposals are risky and unnecessary,” said Portia Shepherd, executive director of Blackbelt Women Rising. “The health and safety of Blackbelt communities must be prioritized over enriching private companies. We’re tired of being treated less.”
“Instead of looking at cheaper, cleaner fuel alternatives, Southern Company and Kinder Morgan are working to greenlight a $5 billion plus boondoggle,” said Daniel Tait, executive director of Energy Alabama. “Alabama Power customers need real solutions to rising bills. Unnecessary projects like this are another example of a monopoly utility taking money from customers to generate ever higher profits with no consideration for the communities the project will impact. Alabama Power won’t even let its customers put solar on their roof without charging an enormous fee. But its parent company wants to run a gas pipeline through your backyard to pad its profits.”
“Georgians are asking for affordable, clean energy, not more unnecessary, expensive, and dirty fossil fuels,” said Codi Norred, executive director of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL). “This report confirms what we already feared – utilities are ready to sacrifice our health, wallets, and future in order to try and cash in on data centers.”
“This report underscores what we have known to be true for a long time here in Mississippi– wealthy and dishonest energy and utility companies exploit and manipulate our people and degrade our environment to make a profit,” said Lea Campbell, founding organizer and board member with the Mississippi Rising Coalition. “This pipeline would be no different, and we’re sick of it. This pipeline isn’t needed, and we don’t want it.”
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Media contacts: Terah Boyd (SELC), 404-521-9900, tboyd@selc.org; Amy Rawe (SACE), 865-235-1448, amyr@cleanenergy.org
