This op-ed, written by SACE Senior Decarbonization Manager Shelley Robins & Dr. Crystal Cavalier, originally appeared in the Greensboro News & Record on December 22, 2024.
Pipeline Company Misleads the Public for Profit and Fossil Fuels
When a Texas company gets its employee in Pennsylvania to write to our local newspaper about the weather we just experienced, you have to wonder why.
Williams Transco already owns more than 33,000 miles of pipelines in the country, but they are trying to ram through an unneeded massive expansion called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SSEP) in our area. What they won’t tell you is that their projects keep getting scrapped because communities don’t want them: like the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project and Regional Energy Access Expansion.
Maybe it’s because they have one of the worst safety records in the country. According to the watchdog Pipeline Safety Trust, Williams is worse than other gas transmission operators in fatalities, cost and releases per incident.
Or it could be that, while they greenwash their image, they fail to mention recent winter blackouts in Texas and North Carolina were caused by freezing temperatures that shut down gas wells and caused the failure of mechanical components at gas-fired power plants — not by inadequate pipeline capacity.
For example, the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that “during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, 65 percent of gas plant outages in the region managed by PJM (the regional transmission organization) were due to plant failures. In addition, gas production fell by 20 percent due to the freezing of production wells.”
Transco stands to make a 14% return on investment for this $1.5 billion methane project. That would fuel Duke Energy’s proposed massive gas buildout in the South — not in the Triad. In their own application they state: “The benefits of the project are not realized by those who are impacted.”
Instead, the impacts are born by those whose properties are impacted and benefits are seen by those outside the project area, “including jobs, additional natural gas and very limited tax revenues.”
Transco’s massive methane pipeline threatens groundwater contamination for well users in Oak Ridge and areas crossing the headwaters of the city of Greensboro’s three water supply reservoirs, Lakes Higgins, Brandt and Townsend. The 42-inch-diameter pipe would cross more than 100 individual water bodies across 16 watersheds, including one major crossing of the Dan River in Rockingham County that would span 230 feet.
Transco doesn’t want you to know that hazardous sites are along its proposed route, that, if disturbed, could exacerbate groundwater contamination risks. The proposed route crosses one Superfund site, two unlined landfills, five inactive hazardous waste sites and dozens of underground storage tanks.
Furthermore, Transco claims that increasing gas supplies is good for the climate because gas replaces coal. Methane, the primary ingredient in what the gas industry calls “natural gas,” is a fossil fuel and greenhouse gas, and it is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere over the short term. Methane is released across the gas supply chain — from the wells that produce it, through the pipes that carry it, even from the appliances that use it. Methane alone is responsible for one-third of global warming. Burning methane still releases carbon dioxide, the primary driver of climate change, and is responsible for super-charging Hurricane Helene, a storm that will require decades and billions for recovery.
How can Williams be proud of increasing the likelihood of another Helene?
Join residents across Virginia and North Carolina standing up to these bullies and demand our elected officials say no to this unneeded, dirty, dangerous project. We deserve better, cleaner, cheaper energy — and we know we can get it. Find out more at www.nossep.org
The post Pipeline company misleads the public for profit and fossil fuels appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Pipeline company misleads the public for profit and fossil fuels
-
Policy -
Project Finance -
Transmission & Power Markets -
Press Releases
New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum
New York City, NY – A new report from ACORE shows that clean energy investors and developers largely plan to increase their investments in 2026 but cite policy, regulatory, and interconnection uncertainty as the biggest risks to their investment strategy after this year.
In its Navigating Uncertainty: Clean Energy Investment Trends (2026-2029) report, ACORE shares market sentiment analysis gathered from surveys of 36 leaders at U.S. and multinational companies that invested billions in the U.S. clean energy market in 2025.
Topline takeaways from the report include:
- Respondents identified federal regulatory and policy risks and interconnection uncertainty and costs as the top risks facing clean energy investments.
- Capital providers continue to view utility-scale solar and energy storage as the two most attractive clean energy technologies for investment.
- Despite declining attractiveness of the U.S. as a venue for clean energy investment compared to previous years, respondents said they plan to develop and finance more American clean energy projects in 2026 than they did in 2025.
- Policy and investment uncertainty clouds the trajectory post-2026, with the potential for additional roadblocks to financing and developing clean energy infrastructure.
This report complements the Clean Energy Investment Trends report released last month that S&P Global prepared for ACORE.
“ACORE’s recent reports highlight a common thread: the U.S. clean energy sector remains capitalized and ready to help deliver electricity reliability and affordability for American consumers,” said ACORE President and CEO Ray Long. “Our sector is thriving and poised to meet this moment of significant electricity demand growth, but investors and developers need policy certainty to deliver on this critical infrastructure for American energy security.”
ACORE released the report at its annual Finance Forum in New York City today and discussed the takeaways during the opening panel with ACORE Senior Vice President for Policy Lesley Hunter, Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda, and S&P Global CERA Consulting Director Christopher Wilfong.
Please email communications@acore.org if you’d like to view the recording of the first panel or set up an interview with ACORE about the report. Register here to tune in to the other panels.
ACORE will host a member-only webinar to discuss both reports on May 21, 2026. Learn more about becoming an ACORE member here.
###
About ACORE:
ACORE is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that operates at the intersection of affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. Our work is focused on stabilizing energy prices, strengthening the electric grid, and driving investment in cost-effective technologies to ensure that clean energy delivers for people, businesses, and the U.S. economy.
ACORE’s membership includes clean energy investors, developers, energy buyers, power generators, manufacturers, and energy providers. In 2024, nearly 80% of the booming utility-scale domestic clean energy growth was financed, developed, owned, equipped, or contracted by ACORE members.
Media Contacts:
Chris Higginbotham
higginbotham@acore.org
Sophie Stover
communications@acore.org
The post New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum appeared first on ACORE.
https://acore.org/news/new-acore-investor-survey-report-kicks-off-2026-finance-forum/
As shown at left, we still have judges who are fighting to prevent the United States from becoming a fascist nation.
I remain amazed that there aren’t more deaths associated with masked ICE agents attempting to arrest people, especially in their homes. Imagine this:
An American, say John Doe, has a loaded shotgun in his home office closet, where he’s writing blog posts, or whatever.
A masked man, visibly armed, with no warrant for his arrest rings the doorbell and tells his wife who’s answered the door, that he’s there for John.
John overhears the conversation, takes his gun, walks down the hallway, swings around toward the front door, and puts a hole in the intruder’s chest the size of a grapefruit.
Again, I can’t imagine why there isn’t more blood spurting out of the bodies of masked terrorist thugs operating illegally.
A reader asks:
Isn’t it time for the Libertarians to cast aside the whole myth of objectivism championed by Ayn Rand? She said we should be realists, so let’s be real and see her for who she really was … a women who when she got sick, and push came to shove, cashed the checks.
To put this into perspective, Ayn Rand:
Was a considerable “thing” in the mid-20th Century. I was one of millions of young people who read “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead,” and accepted libertarianism at the time.
Her way of thinking evaporated, for most of us anyway, when we realized that unbridled greed was eventually going to cause the demise of humankind on this planet.
The actual root cause of this demise was unclear, but as the years passed, environmental collapse became the prime suspect. Rich people obviously couldn’t care less about climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, or desertification.
New ACORE Investor Survey Report Kicks Off 2026 Finance Forum
Q&A: How countries got the global ‘net-zero’ shipping deal ‘back on track’
Cropped 6 May 2026: Forest loss falls | Deforestation regulations | Saving ‘India’s Galapagos’
-
Climate Change9 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases9 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Renewable Energy7 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Greenhouse Gases10 months ago
嘉宾来稿：探究火山喷发如何影响气候预测