Kinder Morgan is submitting a revised route for a proposed natural gas pipeline designed to bring additional supplies of natural gas into Massachusetts where gas and power prices spiked last winter due to a combination of physical supply issues and market factors. The company changed the route in response to public opposition.

This is another example of the hard choices energy use forces upon consumers. Everyone wants electricity (most people anyway) and they want it to be reliable, cheap and clean. Unfortunately, they don’t want to see where it comes from or how it’s delivered to them. This sets up an eternal struggle that can really never be solved to everyone’s satisfaction until we master nuclear fusion, deliver its power wirelessly and fuel our cars, trucks, ships and planes with the water generated as a byproduct.

In the Massachusetts case, some of the folks leading the pipeline’s opposition won a victory by getting it re-routed around their community. Still not satisfied, they are now organizing opposition to the energy supply line in other communities.

“It doesn’t change people’s minds,” said Hewitt. “It still begs the question whether the pipeline is even needed.” – Boston Globe

Interestingly, there is a case to be made that New England doesn’t need additional gas pipeline infrastructure, but instead should optimize existing pipelines and expand LNG use.

But it doesn’t matter whether it’s a new high-voltage transmission line to bring wind power from a remote area away from people’s homes or a new advanced biofuels plant to manufacture clean fuel. The point is people don’t want industrial facilities or infrastructure near where they live, but they want cheap gasoline and cheap power that’s reliable and won’t harm the planet.

Realistically, virtually every aspect of producing, transporting and consuming energy requires trade-offs, compromise, hard choices and open mindedness.