Councilor Says 1 Spectra Project Delayed, No Updates on Compressor Station

WEYMOUTH, MA — Work on the Atlantic Bridge compressor station in North Weymouth is scheduled to start in March but the a Weymouth councilor said she’s received no updates on the Spectra project.

Town Councilor Rebecca Haugh told the Weymouth Town Council Tuesday night that the proposed compressor station has no local, state, and federal approvals and another project known as Access Northeast is about a year behind schedule.

The Access Northeast project calls for 4 miles of pipelines in Weymouth, but the state’s Supreme Judicial Court struck down the funding mechanism, which would have been done through a tariff on the bills of electricity ratepayers.

“It is being speculated that Spectra will use the first half of 2017 to either work to change legislation to enable the electric rate tariff or seek a different source such as natural gas ratepayers,” Haugh said. "Until we know for sure, this is a great update for those fighting the pipeline that the project is set back an entire year.”

The Atlantic Bridge project has received large opposition on the local level and can’t start until it receives multiple federal approvals, including from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission according to Haugh.

“We have been told routinely for the past two years this is a federal approval. Should the FERC approve the project and another federal authorization is denied, they cannot go forward with the project. It’s a conditional certificate and all those conditions are based on state and local conditions,” Haugh said.

Image: File photo