ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Last week, Spire Missouri warned its St. Louis-area customers via email that gas outages may be seen this winter by hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses. They say it all comes down to if an almost 2-year-old, 65-mile pipeline is shut down on Dec. 13 as scheduled.
Will Spire have a permit to operate their STL pipeline this coming winter? And should area residents go out and purchase space heaters? Those were among the questions Charlie Brennan & Amy Markors asked Gillian Giannetti, Attorney, Sustainable FERC Project, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Well I've got good news for you Charlie there'll be no need for you to head over to Lowe's and get yourself a space heater," she says. "St. Louis customers will get their gas this winter and beyond. Be it on the Spire pipeline or on the Enable MRT pipeline which Spire used previously. Any claims that St. Louis will be boxed out this winter are patently false."
However Sean Jamieson, general counsel for the arm of Spire that developed the pipeline countered that the Enable MRT pipeline "in fact was not reliable during the times when people needed it the most … just this year during winter storm Uri."
Uri was a major winter storm that knocked out power in several southern States in February 2021. Mr. Jamieson went on to say that the utility (Spire) "attempted to secure that capacity but it was the pipeline (Enable MRT) that did not accept their bid."
The looming deadline is five weeks from today.
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