"I have filed a Petition to intervene in a License application to Construct and Maintain a Fracked Gas Pipeline beneath the Ashuelot River on Winchester St. in Keene with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. I have asked for a public hearing to discuss the need for a second pipeline under the Ashuelot River and question why the City of Keene has not brought this to the public's attention after knowing about it for at least seven months."
"Liberty Utility's customer base is a mere 1200 households. This pipeline under the Ashuelot is not to maintain the current system, but to expand the fracked gas system they hope to build in the future. And, it's all being done under the radar of publicscrutiny. And, they are misleading people about the "cleanness" of fracked LNG. The chemicals in fracked gas have been banned for other uses, but utilities have been exempted from even having to disclose what chemicals will be leaked and burned into our air inversion-prone valley. We cannot allow this to happen. If Liberty wants to be our utility, then they should invest the boatload of money they are about to invest in a short-lived fracked gas system in power purchase agreements with local rooftop owners for a truly clean, local, decentralized electric energy system."
BEFORE THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
Docket No. DG 18-092
Liberty Utilities (EnergyNorth Natural Gas) Corp. d/b/a Liberty Utilities
Petition for a License to Construct and Maintain a Natural Gas Pipeline beneath the Ashuelot River in Keene
PETITION TO INTERVENE OF TERRY CLARK
Terry Clark (“Clark”), by and through undersigned counsel, Richard M. Husband, Esquire, hereby respectfully petitions for leave to intervene in this proceeding before the Public Utilities Commission (“Commission”) as a party, with all rights as such to the full extent allowed by law. In support of his petition, Clark states:
1. This matter concerns the petitioner, Liberty Utilities (EnergyNorth Natural Gas)
Corp. d/b/a Liberty Utilities (“Liberty”)’s, petition for an order nisi allowing Liberty to undertake substantial “upgrades” and other construction relative to its Keene natural gas distribution system, including installing a new pipeline under the Ashuelot River.
2. Liberty’s petition is filed pursuant to R.S.A. 371:17, which requires a finding that the proposed construction is “necessary , in order to meet the reasonable requirements of service to the public ...” Id. Such necessity obviously requires a factual determination. Likewise,
Liberty’s petition makes a number of supporting claims requiring a factual determination. The statutory obligation to confirm these claims prior to considering the requested relief must be met, especially as Liberty’s claims, on the face of its petition, are not consistent with the facts. For example, while Liberty asserts that the new pipeline is necessary as it is “critical to the economic and safe upgrade and repair of the existing river crossing at West Street,” see Liberty’s petition at ¶ 9, plans for the new pipeline were already in the works by last December, while the need for
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the West Street repairs was not known until April of this year. See April 24, 2018 sentinelsource.com article “Gas leak on Keene’s West Street repaired,” by Sierra Hubbard, available at http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/gas-leak-on-keene-s-west-street- repaired/article_30b6a32e-5e2b-535b-9400-a891b7233eb3.html. Beyond the repairs, clearly a second pipeline is not “necessary” to Liberty’s current service or every gas utility river crossing would require two pipelines—and plainly seems really about furthering Liberty’s expansion
plans for its Keene franchise territory.
3. Clark, a long-time resident of the City of Keene, opposes Liberty’s expansion plans as an intervenor in Docket Nos. DG 17-068 and DG 17-052, having been granted intervention in both matters based on his status as a resident in the Liberty franchise territory whose rights may be affected by the proceeding. See Commission Order No. 26,087 (December 18, 2017), p. 4 and Commission Order No. 26,134 (May 11, 2018), p. 4.
4. As a resident of the City of Keene, whose rights may be affected by this proceeding, Clark also has standing and the right to intervene in this proceeding. While Clark does not take a position at this time as to whether Liberty’s petition should be approved, he believes that approval should not be granted without affording notice and a fair opportunity for public input and intervention,1 that an order nisi is therefore inappropriate, that Liberty is putting the cart way before the horse to the extent that its proposed new pipeline and other construction goes to Liberty’s expansion plans, and that Liberty should itself show cause why it is not appropriate to await the result of Clark’s challenges to Liberty’s expansion plans in Docket Nos. DG 17-068 and DG 17-052 before taking up Liberty’s petition, given that an adverse ruling to
1 For example, Clark understands that the Ashuelot River Local Advisory Committee may be considering intervention at its meeting next month.
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Liberty in one or both cases may preclude at least some of the authorization requested under the petition in this proceeding.
5. As Liberty’s petition was not filed as an emergency petition, Liberty clearly does not consider the construction proposed under its petition to be needed on an emergency basis. Thus, there appears to be no reason why an order nisi is necessary or appropriate for this proceeding.
WHEREFORE, for the reasons expressed, Clark respectfully requests that the Commission:
Issue notice providing a fair opportunity for public input, and intervention, in this proceeding; and
Grant this petition and allow Clark to intervene in this proceeding as a party, with all rights as such to the full extent allowed by law; or
Schedule a hearing on this matter; and
Grant such other and further relief as is just, lawful and otherwise appropriate.
Dated: June 21, 2018
Respectfully submitted, The petitioner, Terry Clark,
By his Attorney:
//s//Richard M. Husband, Esquire Richard M. Husband 10 Mallard Court Litchfield, NH 03052
N.H. Bar No. 6532 Telephone No. (603)883-1218 E-mail: RMHusband@gmail.com
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that I have, on this 21st day of June, 2018, submitted seven copies of this petition to the Commission by hand delivery, with copies e-mailed to the petitioner and the Consumer Advocate. I further certify that I have, on this 21st day of June, 2018, served an electronic copy of this petition on every other person/party identified on the Commission’s service list for this docket by delivering it to the e-mail address identified on the Commission’s service list for the docket.
//s//Richard M. Husband, Esquire Richard M. Husband, Esquire
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