BREAKING NEWS ET Rover goes home; dumps pipeline plans

Atlas Twp.- ET Rover has cancelled a plan to put a natural gas pipeline through the township.

Less than a week after spokeswoman Vicki Granado said Rover planned to file a formal application for their pipeline route that would take it through both Atlas and Groveland townships, the company has sharply reversed course.

In a press release dated Feb. 2, Rover announced a contract agreement with Vector Pipeline that will allow it to use existing pipeline to deliver gas to Michigan markets and Canada.

“The capacity arrangement with Vector eliminates the need for Rover to build its pipeline through Michigan’s Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, Oakland, St. Clair, and Macomb counties,” the release reads. “This new development is consistent with Rover’s ongoing efforts to minimize the project’s footprint. It is also consistent with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s guidelines and expectations which encourage companies to evaluate alternative routes that maximize the use of existing utilities and utilize existing rights-of-way, where possible. Through this agreement, Rover will eliminate 110 miles of pipeline through Michigan, and will eliminate the Canadian portion entirely.”

Granado said ET Rover has continued to analyze the proposed route as well as alternate routes from the beginning of the process. Rover will connect with the Vector 42-inch natural gas pipeline in Livingston County. She declined to comment on the price of the contract with Vector.

ET Rover first announced plans for a new 800-mile natural gas pipeline from the Marcellus and Utica shale areas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, north through Michigan and ending in Canada, last June when they pre-filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The pipeline, which ranges in size from 36 to 42 inches in diameter and would transport up to 3.25 million cubic feet of natural gas, was originally slated to follow the Enbridge Line 6B oil pipeline closely through both Groveland and Brandon townships, but plans were announced in August to shift the route north. The route change came after much controversy in Brandon and Groveland, where residents protested, and both township boards passed resolutions opposing the pipeline and the proposed route, citing safety and environmental concerns.
The reroute drew similar concerns and protests here and hundreds of comments have been filed with FERC opposing the project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will decide whether to approve the project when a formal application is filed by Rover, likely in the next few weeks. The release notes that the scope of the project remains the same with the amount of natrual gas to be transported per day into Michigan and/or Canada.

However, with the new announcement of the negotiated contracted with Vector, it appears the issue is finally dead in both Oakland and Genesee counties.

“Plans are underway to make the necessary modifications to the proposed project route and to file the final alignment with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-February 2015,” said the release, continuing that the pipeline expected to be in service to markets in Michigan and Canada by mid-2017.

Atlas Township Supervisor Shirley Kautman-Jones expressed relief that the pipeline won’t be here.

“I’m doing the happy dance,” she said Monday. “I don’t think they were prepared for the opposition they got. I think the opposition and the economy were the reason they changed their plan. The cost of oil and gas has dropped and they won’t get the return on their investment. I’m sure there’s a lot of things we’ll never know, but I’m elated for the property owners. I work for the people and the people that I talked to were not in favor of it… A lot of people threw their hands up in the air and said, ‘You can’t fight city hall.? But it’s still your property. Their voices counted more than they knew.”