AUGUSTA, Maine — The Kennebec Valley Gas Co., which has proposed a natural gas pipeline through central Maine, is being sold to the subsidiary of a Colorado-based company.
The Kennebec Journal in Augusta said the sale agreement between Portland-based Kennebec Valley Gas Co. and Summit Natural Gas of Maine Inc. has been submitted to the Maine Public Utilities Commission for approval. Summit is a subsidiary of Summit Utilities of Colorado.
Terms of the sale are not being disclosed.
Kennebec Valley Gas has proposed a nearly 80-mile pipeline from Madison to Richmond in central Maine. Officials of towns along the route have been told that the project under Summit will be more extensive than originally proposed, with service being offered to more residential customers in addition to commercial users.
any PUC board members need a scholarship.
I couldn’t find a lot on the parent company except they have been serving a very few small rural areas in Missouri and Colorado and that it is a privately held company.
Those 400 jobs will be via contractors vetted and overseen by ISnetworld and only contractors vetted by and who are subscribers to ISnetworld will be allowed to work on the project. .http://www.isnetworld.com/ All contracators will be required to subscribe to ISnetworld according to a directive by the head Summit.. Seems very wise of Summit to insure that all contractors are properly insured, have adequate safety programs and adequate experience and training in pipeline installation. It might behoove any Maine contractors hoping to work on tis project to get on top of this now and make sure they will meet IS networlds requirements. by becoming subscribers
Interesting to note that this is the sceond expansion of a very local western company into Maine. Buckeye, who had been major players in LPG distribution systems out of the texas refinersies just purchased the oil pipepline between Sourth Portland and Bangor.
And then of course there is Denver based DCP Midstream, whose parent owns the North East and Maritimes Natural Gas pipeline, who are seeking to bring a 22 million gallon regional LPG terminal into Searsport.
Further interesting to note that Buckeye and DCP Midstream are also ISNetworld Member companies which apparently means all Maine contractors for these two companies must also be ISNetworld approved contractors and subscribers.
I am all for energy security, energy independence, rapidly reducing our dependence on oil and for reducing our carbon foot print. All of that is served by utilizing the Maritimes and North East pipeline to bring natural gas infrastructure to more and more Maine communities. But as our energy infrastructure is more and more under the control of large out of State corporations I pray the Utlities Commissison is writing air tight permits and agreements with these companies which protect Maine and Maine communities including carefully vetting the take over investors., researching their performance where they have opertaions, requiring very high and adequate financial security ( bonds irrevocable letters of credit insurance etc).and I hope our existing regulations provide rate fairness for Maine customers.
Maine has been burned over and over and over by out of state companies for whom State Government rolls out the red carpet with no proper vetting and very ineffectual agreements