Utilities Commission: Yankee Gas’ New Plan ‘Worse Than Before’

The latest proposal from Yankee Gas is to expand into New Canaan through Ponus Ridge and Jelliff Mill Road—the third plan that the utility has proposed—to serve New Canaan High School, South School and Saxe Middle School as well as the YMCA and an estimated additional 120 customers along the route who would also have access to the gas, town officials said Monday.

Yankee Gas might also serve Waveny Care Center and the Mormon church on South Avenue, members of the Utilities Commission said at their regular monthly meeting, held at the New Canaan Nature Center.

The proposal is far smaller than what had been proposed initially, and doesn’t include running the line into downtown New Canaan until potentially in a later phase—an expansion that New Canaan’s highest elected official has called an absolute requirement.

Commissioner Scott LaShelle said at the meeting that in three years of discussion, Yankee Gas “has yet to show a cost proposal to the town.”

“They say things like, ‘Natural gas can save you 50 percent compared to oil.’ They’ve never given an actual proposal to say ‘Your cost with oil is X, and if based on a contract with us, you can get gas for this.’ They can’t guarantee the commodity price of gas,” he said. “They can’t fix the price.”

It’s been several months since New Canaan leaders called for more concrete figures from Yankee Gas, and the Utilities Commission has been frustrated with the utility for even longer. First Selectman Rob Mallozzi has said a plan is in draft form now that would bring natural gas to the three schools at Farm and South next summer, with a commitment to expanding downtown within five years.

Commissioner Dan Welch called the utility’s newest position—saying a downtown expansion is potentially part of a future phase—”worse than it was before, which wasn’t that adequate.”

“It was ambiguous before whether or not they would be going downtown,” Welch said. “Now it’s concrete. They just keep negotiating us back.”

Citing potential roadblocks with Yankee Gas and CNG, Welch proposed forming a town-run utility. While this is common in states such as Massachusetts, Tennessee and California, here in Connecticut – which, according to LaShelle, has the one of the lowest natural gas penetration rates in the Northeast – the only municipality that does that is the town of Norwich. That idea presents its own challenges of pledging the town’s tax base toward the project, and investing millions of dollars in building the infrastructure to support it.

“Even if you did all that, and that’s a long process, the bad news is that the Tennessee pipeline is basically sold out,” LaShelle said.

That could be somewhat remedied by a barter/swap system with other pipeline systems, such as Algonquin Gas Transmission, which also delivers natural gas to New England, officials said.

Commission Chair Howard Freeman suggested the commission develop a list of consultants to forge a plan to float by town officials.

“I think we will have more news whether we like it or not from Yankee, probably next month,” Freeman said. “We’re all frustrated and there are a number of points of view and ways to go.”