Methane gas pipelines are not a path to the clean energy future we need in Alabama. The burning of fossil fuels for electricity has threatened water, air and public health for generations and it is past time to move forward toward a cleaner energy future. More than 80% of the water withdrawals in Alabama are for cooling coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Alabama still has no plan for regulating water use and sustaining water supplies. Increasing the use of fossil fuels by transporting more methane gas through pipelines across Alabama and the Southeast is a path to a dirty past.
Southern Natural Gas Company (a company owned by Kinder Morgan and Southern Company), and Elba Express Company (a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan) are proposing to add nearly 300 miles of new pipeline across Mississippi, through 10 counties in Alabama (Sumter, Marengo, Hale, Perry, Dallas, Autauga, Elmore, Tallapoosa, Macon and Lee) and across Georgia to increase methane gas capacity as part of their South System Expansion 4 (SSE4). Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company has applied to construct 208 miles of new gas pipeline across Mississippi and Alabama (known as Mississippi Crossing), which will connect with the SSE4 pipeline in Choctaw County, Alabama. These applications are currently being reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
These projects are part of a bigger proposed methane gas buildout happening in the South. Utilities are planning nearly 44,000 megawatts* of new gas-fired capacity by 2038 — enough to power more than 25 million homes. Utilities are doubling down on dirty fossil fuels for an unprecedented amount of energy they say is needed to serve hungry data centers swarming to the South. This generational investment in climate warming fossil fuels, including methane gas, leaves utility bill payers across the South open to enormous, painful spikes in utility bills and puts our waterways and property at risk.
Concerns about these pipelines include:
- The pipeline would have to cross 11 rivers, more than 100 sub-watersheds, and over 1,000 waterbodies in Alabama and Georgia alone. Construction methods vary, but all pose various risks including digging under, or damming and digging into riverbeds.
- Construction of pipes through waterways threaten fish and other aquatic wildlife that keep our rivers clean and safe.
- Customers – not utility shareholders – are on the hook if the price of fuel spikes. Here in the South, customers cannot choose their energy utility.
- Once authorized, pipeline companies can use eminent domain to forcibly take private property where pipes will be buried.
- Methane is combustible and dangerous. Gas leaks can release dangerous and cancer-causing pollutants and have a history of causing devastating explosions, including along the proposed route of this project.
- Gas infrastructure, including pipes and compressor stations, leak much more pollution than previous EPA estimates.
* This data is from the Southern Environmental Law Center’s six state region, which includes Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
