Client: Town of Ashland
Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD, Joshua R. Castigliego, Bryndis Woods, and Eliandro Tavares
May 2020
Clinic Director Liz Stanton, PhD, Researchers Joshua Castigliego and Bryndis Woods, and Assistant Researcher Eliandro Tavares authored this white paper on behalf of the Town of Ashland to assess the need for the Hopkinton-Ashland Transfer Line Replacement project. Proposed by Eversource to the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board in 2018, Eversource maintains that the pipeline is required to address current and future customer gas demand, as well as the need for redundancy in the gas delivery system. AEC found that Eversource's claims are not strongly substantiated, include errors/omissions, and do not adequately consider alternatives to building additional gas infrastructure. Overall, this white paper deems the project unnecessary in satisfying both current and expected gas demand, that redundancy is not the planning standard in the state, and that the pipeline contradicts emissions targets and climate laws as Massachusetts transitions to a zero-carbon future.